The Spawn of Hogwarts
by wonderclam
Summary: Harry, Ron, Hermione and a few others get selected for an exchange program that takes them to an IL wizarding school. The trip starts out as planned, but our favorite Hogwarts trio eventually find themselves entangled in another mysterious adventure. AU
1. Surprising Situations

Summary: Harry and a few other Hogwarts students get selected to be in a student exchange program that takes them to a wizarding school in Illinois (I know, "exchange program, very original," you say. But I swear it has a plot, it's not just because we wanted to get them in America). Join them as they meet new people, visit Chicago, participate in their very first Battle of the Bands contest, and fight the forces of darkness that are beginning to incapacitate certain students and faculty members.

A/N: hello everyone! welcome to our first attempt at harry potter fanfiction. this _is_ supposed to be a humor story, so don't freak out about the first few chapters being a little bit boring - they will get funnier,i promise (chapter five would be proof of that. i think it's the funniest so far). the original characters bring a lot of the humor in this story, and they're not introduced until a little later.

wonder

oh, right, and none of this stuff belongs to us, j. k. owns it all, blah blah blah.

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Chapter 1 - Surprising Situations

Summer was nearing an end, and for Harry Potter it had been one of the best ever. For the first time in his short life, Harry's Aunt and Uncle decided to do what was best for him, instead of themselves. Early in the summer, Harry had gotten a letter from his best friend, Ron Weasley, inviting him to spend the rest of the summer at his house. Harry had really expected a fight when he asked his Uncle Vernon if he could go, but without much thought, Vernon simply said "Go." Harry had been really thrown off by all of this, but had chosen not to question it. Anything that might attract attention to what had happened might change his Uncle's mind, so Harry quietly sent an owl back to Ron saying that he would love to come and stay for the summer. Then he packed up all of his things without saying another word to anyone else in the house. The very next day he received an owl back telling him how to get to the Burrow, and as soon as he had the chance, he left. That whole ordeal had happened over a month ago, and still Harry smiled thinking about how he was not stuck at the Dursleys'.

Harry was now sitting in the Weasleys' backyard, watching a gang of garden gnomes tear up a particularly ugly bush, wondering how so many could possibly get back so fast since they had just de-gnomed yesterday. He had counted at least twelve gnomes when Mrs. Weasley's voice startled him from behind.

"Harry, dear, didn't you hear? Lunch is ready. Come in and eat."

Harry turned as he heard the voice and smiled at Mrs. Weasley. He then followed her through the door into the crowded kitchen.

The table, which was almost as large as the room itself, already contained the rest of the residing Weasleys and Hermione, who had also been invited for the summer. In the middle of the table was a platter piled high with a vast array of sandwiches. Harry took a seat between Ron and Hermione and grabbed a sandwich. He wasn't really in the mood to eat, so he just sat there and stared at his sandwich for a few moments. Ron was about to ask him what was wrong when action on the opposite side of the table interrupted them. George had just stuck his hand into the middle of the stack of sandwiches and Mrs. Weasley was not pleased.

"George! What do you think you're doing! Get your hand out of there!"

"But I want the one in the middle," said George in a very childish manner.

"Yeah, you always put the good ones in the middle," came from Fred. He then stuck his hand into the sandwich pile as well. Both boys then pulled their hands out and the entire stack toppled over.

"Now look what you've done! Look at this mess! I hope you both know you're going to be here until this kitchen is spotless. I don't care how late you are for work." Mrs. Weasley was now very angry.

This was the exact reaction the twins had hoped for.

"Don't worry, we've got it under control."

"We've been working on a new product to get rid of messes such as these."

"All you have to do is-." George was cut short at this point.

"Oh no you don't. The last time you two tried out one of your new products here we ended up having to rebuild half the bathroom," said Mr. Weasley.

"But dad, this one works. The last one was a joke," whined Fred.

"I said 'no'. I won't allow it."

Fred and George were about to protest their father's arguments again when a fluffy little ball soared through the window and dropped four envelopes in the middle of the sandwiches. The fluff ball continued to zoom around the room as Ron, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione each reached for their respective school letter.

Hermione was the first to tear into the letter. She read through the first page in a flash and moved on to the next. She then gave a squeal of delight. Ron reached over Harry and tried to grab the letter out of her hand, but didn't succeed as she was already jumping out of her seat to run up to the room she was sharing with Ginny. She was obviously excited about something.

"I bet she just found out that she could take four extra classes this year," Ron remarked. He then turned his attention to his own letter. After he had read through his book list, he too moved to a second page. Harry thought this was strange. The only other time he could remember them getting anything extra in their school letters was when Ron and Hermione had been made Prefects in their fifth year. He then got a sinking feeling. He probably hadn't gotten a second sheet in his letter.

After a few minutes, Ron looked up from his letter and said, "They must have made a mistake. This can't be my letter. It must be yours Harry. Here, give me that one."

Harry looked at his envelope in his own hand and saw that his name was on it. "No, Ron, this one's mine. It's got my name on it. See, H-A-R-R-Y. That spells 'Harry'."

Ron glared at him, then went back to his shocked state of mind. Harry opened his letter, expecting to be disappointed, but felt a slight flutter somewhere around his middle when he saw a second piece of parchment fall out from behind his book list. He immediately discarded his book list and started reading through the second page.

Dear Mr. Potter,

Congratulations! You have been selected, along with a small group of other students, to partake in a very special event during this school year. Eight of the most highly responsible students at Hogwarts will be given the chance to go through a student exchange program. If you choose to accept this offer, you will spend the first semester of the school year in the United States at Allteline School of Sorcery, which is located near Chicago, Illinois.

If this offer is of interest to you, please send an owl back no later than August 25th. Once we receive your owl, we will send out a packet of more detailed information. Any forms included will need to be filled out prior to your return to school, and be handed in the first day.

We hope that all of you will be able to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime event!

Signed,

Albus Dumbledore

Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts Headmaster

Harry read through the letter, then noticed that it included a handwritten note at the very bottom.

P.S. Mrs. Molly Weasley will be eligible to fill out any of your required forms.

Ron and Harry realized that they had been completely silent for ten minutes only when Mrs. Weasley asked them what their letters said. Ron handed her his letter and she read it. When she had finished, she looked up and beamed at her youngest son. Then turned her attention to his best friend.

"I suppose you got the same thing?"

Harry nodded his head and gave her his letter as well. Mrs. Weasley read through his too. She then jumped up from her seat and hugged both of the boys.

"I'm so proud of both of you! This is wonderful! Harry, of course I'll fill out anything you need. You don't have to worry about anything. Now, you two should send your owls back right away. If I know Hermione, she's already done that."

And with that, Hermione bounded back into the kitchen and stared at Harry and Ron expectantly. "Well?"

Ron was confused. "Well, what?"

"Are you going? I know you both got the exchange student invitation. I've already written my letter to send back. So, are you going?"

Mrs. Weasley answered for the still-shocked boys. "Of course they're going. How could they miss out on such a wonderful experience?"

Hermione once again squealed in delight, then hugged Harry and Ron just as Mrs. Weasley had done.

After Harry and Ron had written their responses to the invitation, they and Hermione spent the rest of the afternoon discussing what their new school year would be like.

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A/N: ok, that's the first chapter. i know it's not very funny so far, but it will probably be quite a long story, so there is plenty of time for the humor to emerge... which it will. any comments? ok, let me rephrase that - we really like reviews, they're like a drug to us, so please leave one. and leave them for the other chapters, too. :)


	2. The Packets' Arrival

Chapter 2 - The Packets' Arrival

It had been four days since the letters from Hogwarts had arrived, and the Weasleys, accompanied by Harry and Hermione, were in Diagon Ally shopping for their new school supplies. They had already gotten all of their books and were on their way to the robe shop. None of them had gotten new robes in a couple of years and they were starting to look worn. When they entered the shop, Harry was glad to notice that he and his friends were the only ones in there.

"Good, this shouldn't take very long. I really want to look at the new brooms before we have to leave."

"Yeah, they said they were going to be showing a new broom sometime this week," said Ron. "I wonder if they'll have it out today." Ron got a dreamy look in his eyes as he started fantasizing about what the new broom would be like.

The four spent the next half hour getting fitted for their new Hogwarts robes. When they were finished with that, they walked around Diagon Ally for a while and window shopped. At five thirty that afternoon, Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione all met up with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley at the Leaky Cauldron so they could make their way back to the Burrow.

As the last person, Mr. Weasley, stepped out of the sizable kitchen fireplace, he noticed that the rest of the room's inhabitants were staring in disbelief at the table. He followed their gaze and saw what had dumbfounded them. On the table sat what looked like a complete Christmas dinner, minus a turkey that smelled like it was still cooking. He immediately knew something was out of the ordinary. The only people that had been home the entire day were Fred and George. Surely they weren't capable of something like this, were they?

Just then, the twins walked into the kitchen. They were both wearing nervous smiles and started helping to carry bags and boxes to peoples' rooms. When everything was put away, Fred motioned for everyone to have a seat around the table, and George went to retrieve the turkey. When all of them had been seated, except for George, Fred turned to Harry, Ron, and Hermione and handed each of them a thick envelope with the Hogwarts seal on it.

"Oh, these came for you while you were out shopping today," he stated.

"Thank you, Fred," said Hermione. "I was hoping they would come soon. I can't wait to find out more about what we'll being doing this year. It's going to be so exciting going to school in a different country."

Hermione was about to open her envelope, but forgot about it entirely when George set the giant turkey in the middle of the table. Everyone was in awe. The turkey, along with the rest of the meal, smelled delicious. Fred and George had obviously put a lot of work into this, but no one could understand why. But they really didn't care at the moment. They were just worried about getting some of the wonderful food that surrounded them.

After George had carved the bird, and everybody had taken what they wanted of the sides, they all enjoyed a very pleasant meal. The topic of discussion stayed mainly on the upcoming trip that three of the four students would be going on. But after a while it strayed to Fred and George's business.

"So, have you two run Zonko's out of business yet?" When Harry inquired as to how their joke shop was doing, the twins became nervous and fidgety again.

Fred gave a short chuckle before answering. "Well, not yet. Actually, Dad, there was something that George and I wanted to discuss with you..." Fred trailed off.

Mr. Weasley waited for his son to continue. When he realized that Fred wasn't going to, he prompted him. "Yes...?"

George took over at that point. "Do you remember the last time we tried out one of our new products here?" he asked.

Arthur looked at him, slightly confused. "Yes...?"

"And you do remember that we love you very much, right? I mean, look at this table. This has to prove something, doesn't it?" Fred was starting to look a little bit panicky.

Mr. Weasley did not like the direction this conversation was headed. "Yes..."

"Well we... I mean... Fred and I... we sort of... Why don't you just follow." With that, Fred, George, and Mr. Weasley stood up and headed up the stairs towards the bathroom.

After a few moments of tense silence, a muffled, "What the bloody hell happened in here?!" was heard in the kitchen. Harry and Ron exchanged amused glances, then bolted for the stairs. Thirty seconds later, the whole household was gathered outside the bathroom door, or, what was left of it anyway.

As it turned out, Fred and George had invited over some business associates and were giving a demonstration of their new Exploding Hand Soap. The twins thought they had worked out all of the bugs, but something about the explosion still was not right. The size of the explosion was supposed to be no bigger than the person's hand, and wasn't meant to harm anyone, but it had somehow taken out a wall and a half from the bathroom and knocked out the tester. They obviously still had some work to do.

Ten minutes later, after Mrs. Weasley had ranted and raved to the extent that she fainted, Fred and George were busy cleaning up their mess. They had been given the punishment of repairing the bathroom without using magic. Definitely not the way they wanted to spend the evening. Or the rest of the week, for that matter. Of course, Ron and Harry found this extraordinarily entertaining. They couldn't help but give the twins a few words of encouragement.

"Make sure you lift with your back," said Ron as Fred picked up a rather large piece of the wall off the floor. "You wouldn't want to hurt yourself." Fred glared at him, but went back to work without saying anything. Ron giggled at the look he received.

Harry felt the need to join in the festivities. "George, don't forget to sweep that corner over there. Yeah that one. The one that's really hard to reach." Harry also received a death glare, though it was much more severe than the one Ron got.

Although Ron knew he was walking on thin ice around the twins, he didn't seem to think he was in a terrible amount of danger. But, of course, he was wrong.

"Oh, and Fred-" Ron didn't get to finish his comment because Fred lunged at him, tackling him to the ground. It took Harry and George a full three minutes to wrestle Fred off of Ron. Once the two were finally separated, Harry suggested that he and Ron go take a look at their Hogwarts packets and let the twins settle down a little bit before trying to joke with them. Ron agreed while rubbing the spot on his neck where Fred had tried to strangle him.

When Harry and Ron returned to the kitchen, they found Hermione already half-way through her packet. She and Ginny had left the "scene" when Mrs. Weasley had started to yell. Hermione looked up from her reading and frowned when she heard the boys enter the room.

"You two really shouldn't provoke them like that. I'm beginning to wonder if you got those invitations by mistake."

"Oh, Hermione, we were just having a bit of fun. It's not like they've never done anything like that to anyone else. They deserve it," said Ron as he picked up his own packet and went into the next room to talk to his mother, who was sitting on the couch with a cup of tea.

Hermione turned her glance to Harry as Ron exited. Harry just shrugged, picked up his packet, and followed Ron into the living room to read it.

Harry sat down on the floor next to the couch. Mrs. Weasley had taken Ron's packet and was thoroughly reading it over. Ron was sitting very close to her on the couch, also trying to read what all the pages said. He was not having much luck and after a little bit completely gave up and decided to see what Harry's said. Harry emptied out his packet onto the floor. It consisted of about 20 nicely written pages. Skimming through it quickly, Harry found out that only the first 6 or so pages contained real information. All the rest were things that would need to be filled out in case of an emergency and so on.

Harry separated the useful information from the forms that needed filled out and put the latter back into the envelope. He was just about to read the first page when Ron reached over his shoulder and grabbed it from him.

"Hey, I was just about to read that," Harry said, a bit annoyed at Ron's actions.

Ron had just begun to read the first line when he felt a hand collide with the back of his head. Mrs. Weasley had taken notice of what he had done and was not very pleased.

"Ronald, you give that paper back to Harry right now. That's not the way we treat guests in this house."

"But Mum…" Ron began, but trailed off when she shot him a look that told him arguing would only cause more physical damage. Ron immediately handed the paper back to Harry.

"Ronald, I will be done with yours in just a few minutes. I am sure that you will not die before I finish," she said. Ron wanted to protest more, but decided that waiting was his best option. Instead of arguing, he sat back and once again tried reading over his mother's shoulder.

Now that Harry had his paper back, he could finally learn what was in store for him in the future. He read through the first page. It reminded him a lot of the invitation letter that Dumbledore had sent just a few days before.

Dear Mr. Potter,

Thank you for accepting this once-in-a-lifetime offer. This is sure to be a great experience for you. I'm positive that you will have a wonderful time meeting new people and learning about a different culture.

Once again, any forms included in this packet will need to be filled out prior to your return to school. There will be a meeting for all participants on September 2nd at 7:00 p.m. At this time, you will be expected to hand in your forms to your Head of House, and they will be happy to answer any questions that you have.

Once again, thank you for your willingness to participate in this exchange program. The success of this trip will determine if this offer will be made to future classes. Have fun!

Signed,

Albus Dumbledore

Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts Headmaster

Harry read this and concluded that it wasn't really a lot of helpful information, so he moved on to the next page. By now, Ron had given up on getting his own papers back and had moved from the couch to the floor. He was reading along with Harry.

Background Information about Allteline School of Sorcery

Allteline School of Sorcery was founded in the late 1700's by professors Harold and Christopher Allteline. These founding brothers completed their magical training and education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Allteline started out as a fairly small school. Only around 50 students were enrolled the first year. When the school first opened, the Allteline brothers got help teaching classes from their wives, Marie and Sarah. As the years went on and the school enlarged, the professors decided that this new school would run more smoothly if it was operated the same as their alma mater. Because of this, the four houses in the school came to be.

At the beginning of their first year, students are sorted into their houses, Orion, Cassiopeia, Auriga, or Indus, by a candle ceremony. One student at a time is called upon and given a candle. The student must light the candle and wait for it to spark. Whatever color the sparks are determines what house the student will be placed in. Maroon for Orion, blue for Cassiopeia, purple for Indus, and green for Auriga. (Hogwarts students who will be attending Allteline this year will go through this process when they arrive).

Allteline School of Sorcery is now one of the more modern wizarding schools, presided over by Headmaster Randwin Napaliebalous. Staff and students at Allteline enjoy many modern conveniences such as a magical form of electricity. Although the school is a castle, the inside is furnished very comfortably. There is very little stone inside the building, and most classrooms are carpeted.

The students at Allteline are also allowed to travel away from the school on weekends, if they choose to do so. While some students like to visit their homes and families, others enjoy their freedom by exploring the city of Chicago, which is located about thirty minutes east of the school. While many people don't realize it, there are actually many wizarding hotspots to visit in downtown Chicago. Although this is a common activity, a parent or guardian's permission is needed for it. (Please see page 8 of this packet for the permission form).

"Woah, the spawn of Hogwarts. I can't wait to see what that's like," came from Ron.

"Spawn of Hogwarts? That makes it sound evil," said Harry.

Ron thought about this for a minute before responding. "It probably is evil. I mean, everything else we've been involved in has been evil in some way, hasn't it?" It seemed that he really did think this was possible.

Harry realized this and said sarcastically, "Ah, yes, I can see it now. The school building itself is going to be possessed, and the floor of our dorm is going to open up and swallow us whole."

Ron paled just a little at this. He didn't seem to understand that Harry was just teasing him.

"Oh, Ronald, you really are very gullible," Hermione said as she walked into the living room. She had witnessed the boys' conversation from the doorway. "Harry was joking. Not everything we've been involved in has been evil. Have you forgotten about S.P.E.W.? There is absolutely nothing evil about that."

Ron immediately got his normal color, plus a little more, back in his face. He groaned as Hermione brought up her house elf liberation organization.

"Ugh, Hermione, not now. I'm tired and don't feel like hearing a lecture about elf's rights. I want to get through the rest of these papers so I can go to bed." Ron rubbed his eyes and then yawned, as if proving his point about being tired.

"How much more do you have to read?" asked Hermione.

"Too much. The words are so small, and there's so many on each page, and there's so many pages. It's going to take me forever to get this done." Really, it was less than four pages, but he knew that if he whined enough he could get out of it.

"Fine, I'll tell you what it says. Heaven forbid you should actually do something that makes you uncomfortable once in a while."

Ron stood up from his spot on the ground, with a huge grin on his face, and hugged Hermione, who blushed. "You're the best, Hermione." He then laid down on the couch and closed his eyes. (Mrs. Weasley had removed herself from the room when the boys starting talking and making too much noise for her to concentrate on reading).

Hermione saw that Ron had closed his eyes. "Don't you dare go to sleep, Ron. I don't want to be talking to myself."

"I'm not going to sleep, I'm just resting my eyes. And besides, you wouldn't be talking to yourself. Harry's still here, isn't he?"

"Yeah, I am still here," Harry spoke up. "I should be offended that you didn't remember me. But, I'm not, so please continue. I don't want to read anymore either."

"Fine. The next page is just a list of rules that we're supposed to follow while we're away. Some of them are rules from Allteline, and some of them are just things that the Hogwarts staff wants us to remember, so we portray our school as a wonderful learning institution through our actions. I'm not going to read that page to you, I want you two read it yourselves. It's definitely something you two will need to go over thoroughly.

"The page after that is a list of the classes we will be taking and a description of each of them. There really aren't that many differences in the classes. Foreign Cultures Studies is the only class that looks extremely different from ours. It says that every month the class chooses a new country to study. They learn all about the culture of that country and learn the language spoken there. That actually sounds like a class that should be offered at Hogwarts. Maybe I should talk to McGonagal about it sometime." Hermione stopped talking for a moment while she thought about classes. She was brought out of her daydream quite suddenly, though, by Ron clearing his throat rather loudly.

"See, I'm still not asleep. You probably thought I would be by now, didn't you?" Ron asked accusingly.

"What? Oh, sorry. Anyway, the next page is a list of all of the new books and school supplies we will be receiving when we get to Hogwarts. It says that we will also be receiving a new trunk to carry all of our supplies for the other school, so we won't have to worry about keeping all of our things from both schools with us. Hopefully the new trunks aren't too small, I'd still like to carry a few extra books with me.

"The sixth page is a dress code that we've been asked to follow once we arrive at the new school. It's really not that bad. I actually think this could be better than the Hogwarts dress code. At Allteline they aren't required to wear a school uniform, persay. They can wear whatever they like, as long as it doesn't go against the code. The only thing they have to wear is a robe that's the color of their house. And even that doesn't have to look identical to everyone else's. If they want to have their robes made a special way, that's perfectly okay."

Hermione looked up from her paper to see the reactions from the boys at this bit of information. The only thing that greeted her was a slight snoring sound. Both of the boys had fallen asleep.

Hermione shook her head and sighed, chuckling slightly, as she stood up from her seat on the floor. She then headed to her bedroom for the night.


	3. The Surprisingly Cold Ocean

Chapter 3 - Surprisingly Cold Ocean

As the days passed, Harry, Ron, and Hermione became more and more excited in anticipation of the trip. When they had first gotten the letters about going to the other school, it had all seemed so far off. Now that they were about to leave for Hogwarts, their emotions were at their highest and their nerves were beginning to set in. But none of that stopped Ron from being upset at the fact that they had arrived at the train station an hour earlier than usual.

"I honestly don't know why we have to be here so bloody early. We've made it onto the train in time every other year."

"Actually, Ron, no we haven't. Remember second year?" said Harry.

"But that wasn't our fault! We would have been perfectly fine if that stupid elf hadn't interfered."

"Ronald!" said Hermione, exasperatedly. "You shouldn't be insulting Dobby like that. He didn't mean anything by it. He was just trying to look out for your best friend's life. If anything, you should be grateful towards him."

"Hermione, he tried to kill Harry! He thought if he injured him badly enough, he would have to be sent home. I'm glad I'm going to a school in a different country for six months. That means I won't have to look at his ruddy face for at least that long," Ron said. Ron didn't care for Dobby one bit. In fact, if he never saw the house elf again, he would be fine with it.

Hermione, after that last comment, was very angry with Ron. After a few minutes of tense silence, the trio finally made it to the platform and onto the train.

Once they had found their own compartment, Ron started throwing his things into the storage area above the seats. He was obviously still upset about his argument with Hermione. When he had finished "storing" his things, he announced that he was going to take a walk. Knowing just how angry Ron could get, Harry and Hermione let him go without saying a word to him. They thought it best to leave him unprovoked.

A few seconds after Ron had left the compartment, Neville walked in and sat down next to Hermione.

"Why was Ron in such a bad mood just a few moments ago?" he asked. "His ears were doing that thing were they turn so red they almost disappear into his hair. And when I said hi, he didn't even acknowledge me." Neville sounded a little worried, like he thought Ron was never going to speak to him again. But his mood did lighten when Hermione explained the situation to him.

"Don't worry Neville, you're too nice to Ron for him to have a reason to be mad at you."

Neville looked down at the floor as his face flushed. "Thanks, Hermione," he mumbled.

After that Neville sat in silence, but a look remained on his face, like he was trying really hard to remember something. After a little bit, Neville seemed to remember and said, "Oh! I knew I had a reason for coming here. Have you guys seen my school robe? I had it when I got on the train, but now I seem to have misplaced it."

Harry and Hermione told Neville that they had not seen it. They assured him that if they did see it, they would let him know. That seemed to satisfy him. He thanked them, got up, and left.

Forty-five minutes later, Ron came back to the compartment he was sharing with his two best friends. He really didn't feel like arguing with Hermione during the entire train ride, so he decided to apologize right away and get it over with.

"Hermione, I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I know Dobby was just looking out for Harry. I shouldn't have called him stupid."

Hermione looked up from the book she had been reading. "Thank you, Ron." She accepted his apology, even though it hadn't sounded like he'd really meant it. She, too, felt that the next hours that they would be spending together would be made more enjoyable if they refrained from any verbal confrontations.

Ron walked into the compartment and went to where his trunk was sitting. He opened it and pulled out a chess set.

"Want to play?" he asked Harry, just as the train whistle blew, alerting everyone on the platform that they would be departing in less than five minutes.

"Sure," Harry answered.

The next few hours were spent in almost complete silence, except for occasional outbursts that indicated that the chess pieces were brutally destroying each other.

When the train got close to Hogwarts, Harry, Hermione, and Ron changed into their robes and awaited their arrival. It was not long before the train began to slow down and finally stop. Harry, Ron, and Hermione unloaded their trunks and got off the train. They were greeted by Hagrid's smiling face as he waited for the first years.

"Hey you three! I'm so glad I was able ter see you 'fore you left. I heard that you get to go to that school in the US. I'm so proud of all three o' you," Hagrid gushed.

"Thanks, Hagrid. I wasn't aware that you would know," Harry said.

"Not know! Are you kiddin'? There ain't a single teacher here who don't know you're goin'. The only one who seems to disapprove of the student selection is Snape, but that's probably just 'cause he's mad that all the students invited weren't from Slytherin," Hagrid said. Harry and Ron both looked at each other. They had both been wondering who else was going, and Hagrid seemed like he might know.

"Hagrid," Ron began. "Do you know who else," but he was cut short.

"Got to go guys. Dumbledore won't be happy if I don't get the firs' years up to the castle right away. I hope I can see you guys off, but if I can't, then you have a good trip." Hagrid then ran off to make sure that the first years got into the boats okay and that nothing had happened to them.

"Darn it!" Ron said. "I thought we might get some information through Hagrid. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to wait until they make an announcement or something."

Harry, Ron and Hermione stood around talking for a while before getting into one of the carriages. The ride was pretty short, and they were standing inside the castle walls before they knew it.

Harry was really glad to be back at school. Hogwarts felt more like home than the Dursley's house ever would. Sure Ron's house did feel more homey than the Dursley's, but it would always be Ron's and not his own. Harry actually felt a little sad thinking about leaving Hogwarts so quickly. His thoughts were cut short, though, when they were all ushered into the Great Hall so they could begin the sorting ceremony and the feast.

They all walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down. Once everyone was seated, the first years were led in by Professor McGonagal. They all looked pretty scared, but Harry knew that once they were sorted, most of their nerves would go away.

The sorting ceremony was over quicker than Harry had expected, then the feast began. Ron, of course, piled his plate high with food and began to eat like he hadn't done so in a year. Harry and Hermione restrained themselves from this behavior and began to eat like most civilized people on earth.

The feast also ended quickly and the three walked with the rest of their house to the Gryffindor Dormitories. Someone ahead of them said the password and everyone entered the common room. Having gotten up so early, the boys decided it was best to skip out on the first night of school activities and go straight to bed. It was pretty late, and they were completely exhausted. They both said good-night to Hermione and went up to their own dormitory.

Harry laid down on his bed, still fully clothed, and closed his eyes. It felt good just to lay there. He really wasn't ready to go to sleep, but he couldn't control it. Soon he was in a deep slumber.

Harry woke with a start some hours later. It was very late. All of the other boys were asleep, and, from the sound of it, so was everyone else in the school. Harry quietly got out of bed and changed into his pajamas. He knew that if he woke Ron up he would never hear the end of it. Walking very slowly, so as not to make any sound, Harry headed toward his bed. Just as he was about to get in, he lost his balance and landed on his face with a loud thud.

"Oww!" Harry said, in a tone just below a yell. He quickly looked around the room to see if anyone had woken up. Thankfully, nobody had. He got up off the floor and into his bed, rubbing the spot on his forehead where it had hit the ground.

After that incident, Harry had a hard time falling asleep. He had so many thoughts going through his head about everything that would soon be happening, that at one point he was sure it was going to explode. Finally, after laying there for a good hour, Harry became drowsy again and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, Harry woke up to Ron yelling at him.

"Harry! Get up! We've only got twenty minutes till breakfast is over." Ron was already dressed and ready to go for the day.

Harry sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He yawned loudly as he reached over and grabbed his glasses off of the night stand next to his bed.

"Are you sure we only have twenty minutes?" Harry asked, hoping that he had heard wrong. He really didn't feel like hurrying too much on his first day back at school.

"Positive, so hurry up. I'll meet you down in the common room in five minutes." With that, Ron left the dorm and thundered down the stairs.

Harry sat on his bed for another minute, then got up and dressed himself. He was surprised that he found his clothes and put them on as quickly as he did. After he was dressed, he walked down the stairs and found Ron and Hermione waiting as patiently as they could for him in the common room.

"Come on, Harry! We've been waiting for you for ages. I'm hungry! If we don't get down there soon, all the good food will be gone."

Okay, so Hermione was the only patient one. "Honestly, Ron, it's not like you're going to waste away to nothing. You ate twice as much as anyone last night at dinner."

"Sorry. I didn't realize I was taking so long," said Harry.

Harry joined Ron and Hermione as they made their way out of the tower and down to the Great Hall. In Harry's opinion, they got there in record time. Mainly because Ron kept running ahead and the other two wanted to keep up with him.

When they entered the Hall, Ron made a beeline for the table and was already eating before Harry and Hermione even sat down. As soon as they had taken their seats, Professor McGonagal walked over to them and handed them their schedules for the day. All three of them read through their schedules in silence. After a few moments, Ron spoke up.

"Oh, that's a wonderful way to end our only day here for six months - Potions with Slytherin."

"Yeah, but at least the rest of our classes aren't that bad," said Harry. "None of them are with Slytherin. Care of Magical Creatures with Hufflepuff, Divination with Ravenclaw, and Herbology with Hufflepuff again."

"I guess you're right. But still, I'd rather go to History than Potions."

"Well, we can't always get what we want. Come on guys, let's leave a little bit early so we can talk to Hagrid before class starts. Maybe we can even find out who all is going on the trip," said Harry optimistically.

Ron looked down at his breakfast sadly. He had only finished half of it. But, as the curiosity was eating away at him, he decided to go. The trio then got up and walked out of the Great Hall, down the steps, and across the grounds to Hagrid's hut. When they got there, Hermione knocked on the doors.

The doors opened quickly and Hagrid's smiling face was revealed.

"I was wonderin' if I'd see you this mornin'. So, how was yer holiday?" he asked, stepping outside and locking the door behind him.

"Oh, it was wonderful," answered Hermione. She then went into great detail about how she had spent the first month of her vacation. Ron and Harry tried to interrupt her a few times to ask Hagrid if he knew who all was going on the trip, but it did no use.

"And then I went to Ron's house," she finished five minutes later. "That's about it. How was _your _summer, Hagrid?"

"Oh, pretty good, I guess. Didn't do all that travelin' it sounds like you did, but I had an okay time. Spent a lot o' time plannin' some o' the firs' lessons fer the year."

"Sounds like you had fun, Hagrid," Ron cut in. "So, anyway, do you know who all is going on the trip with us?" Ron never got an answer, though, as the rest of the Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs showed up at that exact moment. He glared at Hermione. If she hadn't wasted all that time talking about her _wonderful _summer, he would know who he would be spending the next six months with at a foreign school.

"Alright, everyone over here. Good mornin' an' welcome back, class! Hope you all had fun over the summer..." The rest of the lesson went on as usual from there.

After class, Ron and Harry made their way back to the castle. As they entered the castle, Ron made an observation.

"Hey Harry, I just realized something. Divination is being held in the North tower again. Should we be afraid that that could mean Trelawney was re-hired?" Harry thought about this comment for a moment before looking at his schedule.

"Or we can just assume that she _was_ re-hired because on our schedules it says that were taking Divination with Professor Trelawney."

Ron was not really happy that Harry had made him sound a bit like an idiot, but chose to remain silent. Well, for the moment.

Harry was not particularly thrilled to be going to divination, but he knew he had to make the best of it. He figured if Trelawney made her prediction about him dying sometime during this class, he wouldn't have to hear about it anymore for a long time.

Harry and Ron entered the classroom at the top of the North Tower and took their seats in the very back of the classroom. Both boys were curious about what this class had in store for them today.

The rest of the class filed in and took their seats. Trelawney, as usual, entered the classroom from the back room, holding in her hands what appeared to be a giant box of candles. She set them down on an unused table and proceeded to greet the class.

"Good morning class," She said in a misty voice. "Today we will begin to study the ancient art of Flame Gazing. It is quite a simple task once you understand what you are looking for. I hope all of you have brought your divination year 4 books with you, because today you will need them to see what your future has in store for you. Now, everyone come up front and grab a candle. Once everyone has one, I will show you the proper way to light it."

Ron let out a groan at this. He and Harry both went up and grabbed a candle and returned to their seats. Harry had figured that the candles would be scented, or pink, but to his surprise (and relief) they were just plain white candles.

Once everyone was seated again, Trelawney proceeded to explain the right way to light a candle. The majority of the class didn't have a problem with this. Everyone had their candle lit on the first try, except Neville, who accidentally set fire to Morag MacDougal, a Ravenclaw, before getting his own candle lit. The class was then instructed on the proper gazing techniques and then were left to figure out the mysteries of their own futures.

After all this information, Ron stared blankly at his candle. He really didn't care what his future had in store for him, and if he was to take a guess at what he should be seeing in the candle's flame, he had a feeling that it was probably that Harry's death was eminent.

"I'm going to take a stab at what the candle's saying about my future," Ron said. He cleared his throat and continued. "Lets see, I see traveling in my future. Its going to be to a different land, and I'm going with people I know. I will have a fun time there and I won't miss Potions with Snape. Oh, also Harry, you're going to die a horrible, painful death." Harry got a good laugh out of that.

Just then, Harry caught site of Trelawney heading their way. He was a bit disappointed, because he had really hoped to avoid her for the entire class.

"Harry, Ron, so nice to see you both back here, alive," Trelawney said to them as she walked up to their table. "Now Harry, I wonder what the future has in store for you," she said as she picked up Harry's candle.

"Wonderful," Harry said under his breath.

"Oh! I see good things in your future!" Harry began to perk up a little bit. That was probably the first time he had ever heard Trelawney say his name and the word good in the same sentence.

"I see you traveling with many loved ones. It seems like a journey, one that will benefit you greatly." She stopped for a moment and her happy expression faded into a sad one. Harry knew what was coming next.

"Oh, no. I also see much pain and anguish in your future. I see you alone, in the dark, in the surprisingly cold ocean. It is here where you will meet your doom. Oh, I'm so sorry Harry. I always liked you as a student, but I will say good-bye to you now, knowing that I may never see you again." She then reached over and gave Harry a hug. The entire class was now watching and knew that Trelawney had just predicted Harry's death. Again.

After that Trelawney excused herself from the room.

"Well, at least we know to keep you away from surprisingly cold oceans, Harry," Ron said after Trelawney had excused herself. Harry really was impressed that at least this time he had a new way to die. But somebody always telling you about your death can really bring down your day.

Divination ended (not soon enough for some) and it was time for lunch. Ron was particularly excited since he had not gotten to eat as much as he wanted at breakfast.

When Harry and Ron got into the Great Hall, they spotted Hermione already at the Gryffindor table and went over to join her. Ron looked like he was in Heaven as he started piling food onto his plate. Hermione ignored this and began discussing the morning's lessons with Harry.

"So, did you actually learn anything worthwhile in Divination today?" she asked sarcastically.

"Well, not really. We started Flame Gazing. Thank God we're going to be leaving tomorrow. I don't think I could stand much more of that. Staring directly into a light, though it may be small, cannot be good for a person's eyes. Oh, I did learn the new way I'm going to die, though," Harry stated, as though it were the most interesting topic on earth.

"Really?" questioned Hermione, following suit. "Is this time going to be as spectacular as the rest?"

Harry frowned slightly. "I'm not sure. All I know is that it will involve a surprisingly cold ocean, whatever that means." He then shrugged and started eating his lunch.

"Well, that sounds lovely," said Hermione. "I, on the other hand, had a fantastic time in my Advanced Muggle Studies class. Today we learned about different types of muggle medicine. I'm actually kind of sad that I won't get to continue that lesson." Hermione stared off into space for a few minutes, thinking about how she would miss being at Hogwarts.

Hermione was then joined by Lavender. The two girls spent the rest of the lunch period talking about Hermione not being in school (she was asking Lavender to take notes for her in the classes that they shared while she was gone), while Ron and Harry busied themselves discussing Quidditch and what it would be like in the US.

"Okay, class, listen up!" called Professor Sprout. "Today we will be planting bean sprouts."

The class was confused at this. Ron decided to speak for them all.

"Bean sprouts? They're not magical, are they? Why are we planting bean sprouts?"

"Well, Mr. Weasley, have you never wondered where your supper comes from? Beans don't just appear out of thin air, now do they?" Professor Sprout stared at him for a second, eyebrows raised. She then continued with her lesson. "All of you come up to the front and get one of the large pots. Make sure you plant your beans at least five inches apart from each other. And make sure you don't use any more than three drops of growing solution on them. If you do, we'll be eating nothing but beans for a year."

With that, the students moved into action and didn't stop until the end of class.

With Herbology over, the only class left to go to was Potions. Harry figured he would make the best of it, because no matter what Professor Snape did, he would not have to deal with him for a long time. Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way to the dungeon. They made sure to get there only a little bit early, to minimize the time spent with Snape and Draco Malfoy. Harry cringed thinking about Malfoy. He had avoided him all summer, but with Potions being with Slytherin, that was not an option now.

The three of them walked into the classroom and took available seats near the back of the classroom. As soon as Harry was seated, he took notice of Malfoy, who was sitting close by. Malfoy looked like he was about to say something to Harry when Snape burst into the room. Snape seemed very angry about something, and Harry felt that it would probably be taken out on him.

Snape stood at the front of the room, staring at the students before him, and greeted them sourly. "Welcome back. As this is an advanced class, you will all be expected to be able to perform at an extraordinary level. If not, you will be dropped from the class list. The first potion that we will be brewing this year takes a full week to complete, so I suggest beginning now."

As Snape said the last few words, the directions for the day appeared on the board at the front of the room.

Harry was about to start his work, but was stopped when Snape said, "Oh, I almost forgot. Mr. Malfoy, Potter, Granger, Weasley, follow me." Harry looked over at Ron and Hermione, but got the same look from them that he was sure he was wearing; utter confusion. He just shrugged, and they all followed Snape into his office.

When they got in there, Snape sat down behind his desk and waited for Malfoy to waltz in, which he did a little over a minute later.

"Thank you for gracing us with your presence, Mr. Malfoy." At that comment, Ron made a noise of disgust, which resulted in a death glare from Malfoy. Snape decided to ignore the two and continued.

"As none of you will be in class for the next few months, I have been forced to give you a separate assignment rather than fail you for not completing the one being worked on in class today. I expect all of you to read and take detailed notes on the first five chapters of the textbook and have it ready to turn in by the end of class." A few seconds passed in silence. "Well? What are you waiting for? Get to work!"

The four potions students walked out of their Professor's office and went back to their seats. Hermione and Malfoy took out their books and began working right away. Harry and Ron, on the other hand, moved as slowly as possible. They didn't want to have to put any more work into this than was absolutely necessary.

When they had finally gotten all of their supplies out of their bags and ready to use, Ron turned to Harry and whispered, "Can you believe that bloody git is going with us? How did he ever get chosen?"

"I don't know, Ron. Maybe they put his name on the wrong list. He was supposed to go on the list that named rich snobs that don't care about anyone but themselves."

Ron had started to say something in response, but Snape interrupted.

"Is there a problem, gentlemen?"

"No, sir," Harry and Ron answered in unison.

"Well, then, five points from Gryffindor for disrupting class."

"But Professor !"

"I would suggest closing your mouth now, Mr. Weasley. You wouldn't want to lose your house any more points on the first day back, would you?"

Ron really didn't want to give in so easily, but he also didn't want to get into a lot of trouble. The best he could manage without losing house points was a scowl. "No, sir."

"Good. Now get back to work." Snape then strolled over to the next Gryffindor table and started harassing the students there about the way their potion was setting up. Apparently it was supposed to be the same thickness as grape juice. Theirs was more along the lines of Jell-O.

The rest of the class went by without too much trouble, which everyone thought was a miracle. Hermione, of course, finished her notes with ten minutes to spare, while Harry and Ron hurriedly wrote down anything that came to mind for the whole of chapter five. All three were glad when the end of class finally came.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way to the Great Hall as soon as they had dropped their things off in their dorms. Ron, like always, was eager to get there quickly. But as soon as he got through the doors, he stopped. There was a large group of Slytherins blocking the way. In the center of the commotion, as expected, was Draco Malfoy. He appeared to be showing the rest of the congregation something on his wrist.

"It was a gift from my mother for being responsible," Draco's voice rose above the 'oohs' and 'ahhs' of his adoring fans. "It gives the times from all over the world, all I have to do is say where I want the time from. Anybody need to know the time for, oh, let's say, Paris, France?" The crowd around Draco gasped as the face of the emerald encrusted watch did, indeed, change to show the time in Paris.

Draco then looked up and smirked as he locked eyes with Ron, who was still standing in the doorway. Then, never braking his gaze, said a little more loudly than necessary, "It's not much, but mother figured I needed something to show those American idiots what I was worth."

Ron turned red, glared at Malfoy, and stalked over to the Gryffindor table, not waiting for either of his friends as the called out for him to slow down. When they did finally get to him, he was sitting down and staring at his half-full plate (even when he was mad he couldn't ignore the fact that there was something edible sitting right in front of him).

"Oh, just ignore him like you always do," said Hermione as she sat down and saw that his face was still tinged a pinkish color.

After that, the group ate in peace. Towards the end of the meal, Dumbledore stood and made an announcement, reminding all of the students going on the trip that they needed to come back later that evening to attend the meeting.

Dinner ended and Harry, Ron, and Hermione decided to stay in the Great Hall and wait for the meeting to begin rather than return to their common room and have to come back. They waited only a few minutes before Dumbledore appeared at their table and told them that the meeting would begin in exactly fifteen minutes in the room off the Great Hall.

Harry and Ron looked around at the students still left in the Hall. Harry was sure that some of the ones left were there for the same reason as he was, but there also seemed to be quite a few who only wanted to see who the chosen few were. The trio waited a few more minutes before going into the room.

Even though the meeting wasn't supposed to start for another five minutes, the small room was already starting to fill up with students and Heads of Houses. Harry looked around and was happy to see that Justin Finch-Fletchley and Anthony Goldstein were there. He knew both quite well from the D.A. meetings and knew that they would be a nice addition to the trip. Susan Bones quickly walked in and went over to talk to Hermione. Then, just before the meeting was to begin, Mandy Brocklehurst walked in, relieved to have made it on time.

Just as the clock struck seven, Dumbledore walked to the front of the room and asked everyone to be seated. Harry was confused; when he had come into the room there hadn't been any chairs in there. Now he saw that two rows of chairs had appeared, each bearing a name upon it. Harry found his seat and sat down, as did the rest.

Dumbledore was just beginning to speak when Malfoy burst into the room. He had a smug smile on his face as he mumbled a half-hearted apology to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore just smiled and said, "It's so nice that you could make it, Mr. Malfoy." Draco found the only empty chair left as the meeting officially began.

"First of all, I would like to congratulate each of you eight students. From Hufflepuff, Susan Bones and Justin Finch-Fletchley; from Gryffindor, Ronald Weasley, Harry Potter, and Hermione Granger; from Ravenclaw, Mandy Brocklehurst, and Anthony Goldstein; and from Slytherin, Draco Malfoy. In your past five years here, all of you have shown leadership and a fair amount of self-discipline." Dumbledore paused here and glanced between Harry, Ron, and Draco as if he were emphasizing the word fair. "Which is why you have been chosen to be a part of this special event. We thought you all prime candidates to represent Hogwarts at a different school, in a different country.

"Now, to business. I see that you all have your permission forms with you. You can now hand those in to your Head of House." Dumbledore waited as the students handed in their papers.

"Thank you. Another matter of business to attend to is to warn you that Americans are more lenient on the rules about mixing magic with muggles. American wizards actually spend a good deal of their free time interacting with muggles. Although this is true, they are not careless about the way they conduct themselves in these situations. Most of them have the common sense not to perform magic in public areas; this is something that I expect you all to keep in mind, as you will be allowed to use magic outside of school. The laws over there are different and students can begin using magic as soon as they start school.

"Because of this, we want you to get used to the interaction with muggles by flying, on an airplane, from New York to Illinois, where the school is."

At that bit of information, Malfoy's face took on a look of disbelief and disgust. "What? We have to travel like muggles? Why? Why can't we just Floo there?"

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy, you will be traveling like muggles. The first reason, I have already explained to you. The second reason is that it is illegal for wizards under the age of eighteen to use Floo powder, owing to the fact that it was being sold to muggles as a drug. And third, a simple lack of fireplaces in most American homes and buildings has caused it to become the least preferred method of travel."

Malfoy was still not happy about the travel arrangements, but thought it best not to talk back to Dumbledore. He knew that he had been pressing his luck the first time he had spoken out of turn. Dumbledore kept his eyes on Draco for a few seconds before continuing with his speech.

"After the airplane lands in Chicago, you will take a car to the school. Once you are at Allteline, you will attend a meeting like this one in case you have any questions for the headmaster. After that meeting you will be sorted into the house you will be staying with for the duration of your stay.

"Tomorrow morning you will need to report back to this room, with your belongings, by seven o'clock. You will take a portkey to New York and meet a representative from the school there. From that point on, they will be giving you directions. I expect you all to behave better than you do here while you are on this trip. Does anyone have any questions?"

Hermione immediately raised her hand. "Sir, if we are taking a portkey to New York, why can't we just take one straight to the school?"

"There are two main reasons why that cannot happen. One, there are certain location set up along the coast that travelers must stop at before they can go any further into the country. And two, for security reasons, portkeys are not allowed to be set up within ten miles of the school."

The room was silent for a few moments, and then Hermione's hand shot up again. "Sir, what about the time difference?"

"Another good question. If you did not already know, the time in New York is five hours behind London. Therefore, you should all have figured out by now that you will be arriving in New York at around two o'clock in the morning, at which time you will be given a tour of the city."

Another pause in the conversation, then Hermione's hand went up for a third time. But before she could ask her question, Dumbledore was already answering it.

"Yes, Miss Granger, I can assure you that the library there meets even your requirements." He ended this with a smile. Hermione looked positively giddy as her hand went down. "If there are no more questions, then I suggest you all get to your common rooms and get your things ready. And go to bed early, you have a very long day ahead of you tomorrow."


	4. How High?

A/N: a few minor spelling and grammar errors have been fixed from the original version of this chapter. does anyone actually enjoy reading this story? if so, it'd be extremelynice to find out in the form of a review...

Chapter 4 - How High?

The morning arose quickly for the boys in the Gryffindor dormitory. Both Harry and Ron had packed all of their belongings the night before, so they were able to sleep in until six. Once they were up, there was nothing to do except get dressed, eat, and drag their luggage to the Great Hall.

Harry got dressed quickly and made his way into the common room. He was surprised to see a rather large banner draped across the doorway that flashed "Congratulations Harry, Ron, and Hermione! Have a good trip!" Harry then noticed the rest of the common room. It had been decorated in scarlet and gold streamers. He noticed a few of his fellow Gryffindors sleeping on the couch and in chairs, all wearing party hats. They had apparently come out to wish them off, but had not managed to stay awake.

Behind him, on the stairs, Harry heard footsteps. He turned around and saw Seamus, Dean, and Colin. They, too, were wearing party hats. All seemed very tired and went up to Harry and congratulated him and told him to be safe and have a good trip. Harry expected Colin to whip out his camera and get a few shots before they left, but Colin apparently did not even have his camera with him. He practically fell asleep standing next to Harry. Before he decided to go back to bed, Colin said to Harry, "Have fun in Brazil."

Harry was surprised that all three of them were so tired. "So, why are you all so tired?" he asked.

"Because we had to wait until after you went to bed before we could set up the common room and nobody thought about bewitching the sign ahead of time. It took us almost five hours to get it right," said Dean. Harry was impressed. He didn't know that the guys would do something like that.

Before Seamus and Dean left, Ron came down the stairs. He was also very surprised by them. Dean and Seamus had already begun to head back up the stairs when Harry realized that Hermione wasn't in the common room.

"Hey guys, before you leave, do you know where Hermione is?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, she's down in the Great Hall getting breakfast. She left about an hour ago. She said she wanted to talk to McGonagal and make sure she wasn't going to be behind when she got back."

"Oh," was all Harry could respond with. Hermione worrying about school, what a surprise. Harry and Ron said good-bye to Dean and Seamus, then went down to breakfast.

Harry and Ron made their way down to the Great Hall, dragging their trunks behind them. The trunks that the school had provided them with were slightly smaller than their normal trunks, and didn't have any identifiable marks on them other than the students' names. It obviously wouldn't be a good idea to have the Hogwarts crest on there if they would be traveling with Muggles.

Before they sat down to eat, they dropped their trunks off in the room they would be leaving from. There were only a few students in the Great Hall so early in the morning, most of them were students going on the trip. Harry and Ron went over to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Hermione, who was already there eating.

"I see you two finally made it down here. I was just about to go looking for you," Hermione said. Harry looked down at his watch; 6:25.

"It's still early, Hermione," Ron said. "Do you really think I would voluntarily get up two hours early?"

"Well I thought, on a day as important as this, just maybe you would," Hermione snapped back.

"Hey guys, let's not argue. Nothing ruins a day like you two going at each other first thing in the morning," Harry said. Ron and Hermione both agreed and went back to eating.

Breakfast was completely uneventful, which was a good thing, and all three Gryffindors were standing in the room off the Great Hall when the clock struck seven. Before the clock had chimed the seventh time, Dumbledore opened the door to the room and walked in. In his right hand he was carrying a large neon pink beach umbrella. Some of the girls in the room began to giggle. Dumbledore walked to the center of the room and began to speak.

"Well, children, it seems that you have all made it. Even Mr. Malfoy is on time today." Dumbledore paused in his speech and winked at said student. Harry had not even noticed that Draco was in the room. Dumbledore then continued, "Today, as you all know, you will be taking a portkey to New York City. You will arrive in a building near the airport that will take you to Chicago. In this building you will meet with your guide, who will then take you to the airport and make sure you all get on the plane safely.

"Please be aware that the building you will arrive at will be very busy. There will be many people there, all going in different directions. Remember to stay together at all times, and try not to get in their way. Being trampled is not much fun.

"Now, all of you gather 'round and grab a part of the umbrella. Keep a firm grip on it and your trunk. You wouldn't want to end up in a different country without any clean clothes, would you?"

All of the students grabbed a part of the umbrella. Harry made sure he had a tight hold on everything. Dumbledore walked away from the group and stopped next to the door. "Once the clock strikes 7:05, you will leave here. I hope you all have a good trip. See you next semester." Dumbledore then stood and waited for his students to disappear.

Harry soon felt the familiar tug behind his navel. Everything around him became blurry and he could not move. Then, as suddenly as the sensations had started, they stopped, and Harry looked around at the new building they were standing in.

Well, maybe new was not the best word to describe it. The building appeared to be an old warehouse. It was very long and made of metal, with a high, flat ceiling. Just as Dumbledore had said, the area was full of wizards bustling about, looking for where they needed to be. Some were dressed as Muggles, and others were wearing brightly colored cloaks. Many of the people were also carrying objects that had obviously brought them to, or were taking them from, this destination. They were carrying everything from books, to toasters, to what could even have been the door of a car. It was interesting to watch the people move around. A group of people would be standing in one spot one moment, gone the next.

Harry had gotten so wrapped up in looking at everything, that he forgot his own group was supposed to be meeting someone. Hermione, though, had taken charge. She nudged Harry and pointed to a man across the room. He was holding a sign the read 'Hogwarts.' All eight students started moving in his direction.

When Harry had first seen the man, he had thought him to be very old, but as he got closer he realized that he was quite the contrary. The man looked very young, probably not a day older than 25. His hair was short and blonde, with a slight part down the middle. He wore a yellow T-shirt and jeans. Any Muggle that saw him would never think he was anything but their own kind.

The man gave a little smile as the group of young people approached. They were probably exactly who he had been waiting for, but just to be on the safe side the man asked, "Are you the students from Hogwarts?"

"Yes, we are," Hermione said. His smile grew when she answered.

"Wonderful, and I see you've all made it OK. Let me be the first to welcome you to America. My name is Chris Jacobs, but please, don't call me Mr. Jacobs or Sir, or anything like that; it makes me feel old. I'd rather you just call me Chris."

Chris paused for a second as if to gather his thoughts, then continued. "As you may know by now, it is currently 2:30 a.m. New York time. Your flight will leave at 7:00, so I will have plenty of time to show you around town. If there are no questions, I have a van waiting outside for you all."

Nobody had any questions for Chris, so they began the process of getting out of the building. They made their way to the van, which had been parked rather far away. It was a bit surprising how busy it was for it being two in the morning. Ron was just about to get into the front seat so he could talk to Chris about everything they were going to see and tell his father all about it, when a voice behind him stopped him.

"Excuse me, Weasley, but if you think I am going to sit in the back of this confounded Muggle contraption with the rest of you plebeians, then you are sadly mistaken. Move."

Ron was about to open his mouth to retort, but a look from Hermione told him stop before he did something he would regret, like kill Malfoy in an open New York street with more witnesses than he would care to acknowledge. So, instead, he sighed and moved to a seat in the back as close to Chris as he could get. As Draco got into the front seat everyone heard him mutter, "I can't believe my father actually agreed to this. Stupid Muggle transportation."

After receiving a giggle at his last comment, Draco refrained from speaking for the rest of the tour.

The rest of the tour that happened to take them all over Manhattan. They drove by the Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, all along Broadway, Central Park, and many other tourist destinations.

When the tour was over a few hours later, Chris directed the van to the airport so they could get through security without being rushed (it was still only 5:00 a.m. and their plane didn't leave until seven that morning).

Ron was fascinated by everything in the airport. As soon as they got there, he wanted Harry to explain how the vending machines worked, then wanted a demonstration. Since none of his classmates had any American Muggle money (surprise, surprise), Chris showed how to put the dollar in the machine, then choose what you wanted. All of the young witches and wizards who had never done anything Muggle before wanted to try this, except Malfoy of course. He stood at the back of the group and glared at their antics.

Fifteen minutes and 20 packages of M&Ms later, Ron was having Chris explain how all the monitors worked that showed all of the departure times for all of the flights while they walked to the security point to check their things. Although Chris had told him it would happen, Ron was still a little bit shocked when some of the departure times changed.

The nine of them spent the next portion of their lives going through Muggle security in a Muggle airport (what a sight, I'm sure). Draco was quite offended when the metal detector went off because of the zipper on his pants (as he was the first one to go through and hadn't seen the way the little arch had reacted to anyone else walking through), and was about to have a fit until Chris told him that this was completely normal and that it would probably happen to all of them. He was pleased when it did, in fact, happen to the rest of the congregation.

The group finally got through security and made their way over to the departure area. They waited around for a while, until finally their plane was called over the loudspeaker. Chris lead the group over to the gate and handed each person a ticket and gave them instructions on what to do when boarding the plane. The young wizards had no problems boarding the plane, and all quickly found their seats. Harry sat down in his seat and without even thinking gave Ron the seat next to him, which was also next to the window. As soon as Ron had sat down, Harry saw the error in his ways. Ron sat quietly staring out the window, watching the other airplanes leave. He wasn't saying anything, but the look on his face showed that he was a little bit worried. The rest of the passengers filed onto the plane and paid little attention to the 8 young wizards who were busily trying to amuse themselves in Muggle ways. Finally the plane door was closed and they got ready for take off.

The stewardess came to the front of the plane and began to talk about safety procedures. She began with how the seatbelt could be latched and then made her way onto what the passengers needed to do in case of a problem on the aircraft. "In case of an emergency, there are oxygen masks located above your head. If the cabin pressure drops, the masks will become suspended from the ceiling and you should put them over your mouth and nose. If you begin to feel sick, there are airsickness bags located in the back of every seat. Also, in case of a water landing, the seat cushions that you are sitting on can be used as a flotation device…" Harry was unable to hear the last part of the stewardess's speech because Ron was elbowing him.

"Yes Ron?" Harry asked.

"Harry, why would we need a flotation device, and what's a water landing?" Ron asked. Harry didn't want to tell him the truth, but he felt that he had no choice.

"Ron what their trying to say is that if we crash into water we can use our seats to float." Harry explained.

"Oh. Wait a minute, did you say crash? Is that common? I hate crashing. Harry, I want to get off. Why can't we just walk to Chicago!" Ron yelled in a very high-pitched, panicked voice. He was thoroughly panicking now, and had turned the color of vanilla pudding. Ron being completely panicked was also beginning to worry the other passengers. Harry tried to calm Ron down by assuring him that planes rarely crashed, but that only made Ron more tense. Finally Hermione had to step in. When they had all taken their seats, Hermione had chosen the one right behind Ron, which now was apparent to have been a very good choice.

"Ron listen, you're a wizard." Hermione began. "If we were going to crash we could apparate or do something else to save ourselves. Have you ever read anything in the _Daily Prophet_ that said 'Wizards die in tragic plane crash'?"

"Well no…"

"Then you have nothing to worry about," Hermione said. Ron seemed to calm down a bit at Hermione's words. He had never heard of a wizard dying in that sort of way. Maybe he didn't really have anything to worry about.

Hermione, on the other hand, was now quire annoyed with Harry. He really should not have told Ron what he did.

"You know, telling Ron the statistics of plane crashes really isn't going to help calm him down." Hermione said.

"Sorry. I wasn't sure what to do. It was the first thing that came to mind." Harry said and smiled weakly. Hermione just rolled her eyes and went back to the book she was reading about the History of Allteline.

Hermione didn't get to read much of her book, though, as Chris suddenly jumped up from one of the seats behind her and asked loudly, "Where's the blonde boy?"

All the students looked around at each other and realized that Draco was indeed missing. One of the flight attendants had heard Chris and walked over to him and told him that there was a blonde boy sitting in first class. Chris asked her if he could go check to see if it was the person he was looking for and she agreed. He was only gone for a few minutes before he came back, dragging Draco by the arm. Draco was not pleased about this.

And he let it be known.

"I don't belong back here. These people are below me. And it's bad for my complexion."

"Draco, your ticket is for coach, not first class. Now sit down and shut up," said Chris.

"Malfoys don't fly coach, Malfoys fly first class!" Draco said as he shook his fist in anger.

Chris let go of Draco's arm in front of the seat next to Hermione. Draco stood there for a second before he realized that Chris meant for him to sit there. Draco stared at Chris before finally announcing, "Well, I'm surely not going to sit here."

Chris was fed up with Draco's behavior and thought for a moment about just shoving him in the overhead compartment, but decided that that might not be the best idea. Instead he stared back at Draco and calmly responded, "Listen, this is the only seat left. You had your choice earlier to choose where you wanted to sit. You chose first class, which was the wrong choice. Now sit down before I have to make a scene."

Draco was now not just annoyed with Chris, he was furious. He begrudgingly sat down, but not before giving Chris the infamous Malfoy death glare. Chris just gave a little smile back and returned to his own seat.

While Draco was furious about having to sit next to Hermione, Hermione was not exactly thrilled to be seated next to Draco either. She had a feeling that since Draco had not gotten his way, he was going to complain the entire flight, which was really going to cut into her reading time.

Of course, Hermione was right. She hadn't gotten through one page before Draco started in on how this was the worst thing he had ever had to go through in his entire life. Hermione just sat there and willed herself not to slam her book in his face.

When Chris had left to go find Draco, Ron's fears had come back. Although Hermione's talk had helped some, he still didn't seem to think he was going to live through this ordeal. It was not all that bad until the plane took off. That's when Ron decided that planes were definitely not safe and that he would probably be spending his last minutes on earth aboard one. Harry once again tried his best to calm down his best friend, this time using Hermione's techniques, but it was to no avail. Ron just kept repeating over and over, "We're all going to die. Why do I have to die like this?"

Harry had really hoped to just relax the during the entire flight, but was forced into dealing with Ron instead. Well, Ron and the passengers who he was frightening again with his ramblings. Harry gave up telling them that it was Ron's first flight, and just decided to tell them a completely false story about how Ron's whole family had died in a plane crash the summer before. The others looked at Ron with sympathy before turning back to whatever they had been previously occupying themselves with and did not pay anymore attention to him for the rest of the trip.

The plane eventually did land in Chicago. Much to Ron's delight, they did not end up having to use their seats as flotation devices in the middle of Lake Michigan.

"Well, that wasn't really all that bad," Ron said as they got off the plane. Harry stopped and looked at his friend in disbelief. He could have sworn that Ron had just spent the last two plus hours freaking out about how they were all going to die in a fiery crash. Maybe he had imagined it.

Hermione's trip hadn't faired much better. "I never knew anyone could complain for that long without repeating a single thing. He found something wrong with every little thing on that plane, even down to the color of the shoes on the lady across the aisle."

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked.

"What do you mean, what am I talking about? Didn't you hear Malfoy complaining the whole time we were on the plane?"

"No, sorry."

"How could you not have heard him! He was sitting right behind you!"

"Well, Ron was sitting right next to me going on about how the plane was going to burst into flames and we would all die horrible, fiery deaths."

Hermione stayed quiet for a moment before, "Oh. I guess I'm glad I didn't have to hear that, too, then."

After everyone made their way out of the terminal, they gathered their luggage and were ushered outside to two vehicles waiting to take them the rest of the way to the school.

Instead of going straight to the school, it had been decided that the students should be taken through the city of Chicago, just so they knew what to expect before they ventured there alone on their first weekend off. They were shown some of the places that most of the kids at school were known to frequent, plus some of the landmarks the city was known for.

After they were done in the city, they spent the next half hour driving through the less populated parts of town. They continued into the country and, after a while, noticed a looming shape in the distance. As they came upon it, the students began recognizing it one by one. This was the place they would be spending the next few months of their lives.


	5. Welcome to Allteline

A/N: chapter five has been revised. there were mistakes in the first copy, but we wanted to get it up as soon as possible. those have been fixed now. we may go through the first chapters and revise those as well, but i'm not sure. ok, that's enough talking, i'm sure you want to read. btw, this is, by far, the funniest chapter so far. my personal favorite.

wonder

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Chapter 5 - Welcome to Allteline

At their first sight of the school, the students were overwhelmed. The nerves that they had felt getting stronger throughout their day of travel had finally reached a high point.

When the vehicles they were riding in reached the gates to the school grounds, the students could make out the details of the school building. It did look quite like Hogwarts, in the sense that it was a castle, but it did not look anywhere near as old, or ornate, as what they were used to. The stone looked almost new because it was a very bright white color. There were four main towers at the four corners of the building and a few scattered in other places. On one side of the school, towards the back of the grounds, they saw what they were sure were Quidditch goalposts. There were also a lot of trees around the school, but nothing like the forest at Hogwarts. The gates opened and the cars continued up the long roadway until they arrived in front of the main entrance to the school.

As they rolled to a stop, the students were just moving to open their car doors when the doors to the school were suddenly banged open. A tall, smiling man walked outside and stood at the top of the steps that lead up to the doors.

The man looked to be about 40 and had dark brown hair. He was wearing a brightly colored Hawaiian style shirt and khaki shorts with sandals. The deep tan he had made him look even more like he had just gotten back from a vacation on some exotic island. When he spotted the cars, he waved enthusiastically and started down the steps in their direction.

When he approached the first of the two cars, he opened the door that Hermione had been about to before he made his appearance.

"Hello, everyone. I'm Randwin Napaliebalous, headmaster of this little learning institution, and soon to be one of your new best friends... I hope," he started, still with an abnormally large grin plastered on his face. "I trust you all had an enjoyable trip?" Everyone nodded in confirmation. "Wonderful. It's great to finally get to meet you guys. I've heard a lot about all of you from Dumbledore. Well, there will be more time for introductions later on. Why don't we get all your things in the building and have you sorted so you can put everything away? Then Chris can give you the official tour of the school and you can have a little bit of time to look around on your own and get to know the place before the rest of the students arrive later this evening. Sound good?" There was a murmur of consent from the students. "Awesome, let's go!" With that, the head of Allteline moved from in front of the door and stepped to the back of the car to help the students gather their things from the trunk.

After all the students had their luggage with them, Professor Napaliebalous took them in through the front doors. For ten minutes he guided them down halls and past doors, occasionally throwing out random bits of information about the school and answering all of Hermione's questions. The end of their journey came when he led them into what Harry assumed was his office.

As the group entered the room, Harry noticed that there were already four people sitting in there, apparently awaiting their arrival. Three of them were female, the last was a man.

"Hey, good to see you guys again," said Napaliebalous to the room's native inhabitants. He then turned to the Hogwarts group and said, "Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to our four Heads of House here at Allteline. This is Mrs. Gorman, Head of Orion. She teaches Potions. Next to her is Mrs. Spenace, Head of Indus. She teaches Transfiguration. That's Miss Truehardt, Head of Auriga. She teaches History. And last but not least, Mr. McVickerson, Head of Cassipoeia. Poor guy, there aren't that many male teachers here. He has to put up with a lot of women a lot of the time, especially during meetings. The only chance he really has to get away is when he's teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. After you are sorted into your new houses, you'll get to know your own Head better." All the teachers had smiled and waved, or shown some kind of greeting, when they were introduced. "Ok, that's done. How about going around the group and introducing yourselves?" Napaliebalous said to the students.

Of course, Hermione was delighted to start. "My name is Hermione Granger. I'm in Gryfindor house at Hogwarts, and proud to say that I'm at the top of my class." She then moved forward to shake the hands of her new teachers.

"I'm Harry Potter. I'm also in Gryffindor, but I have no idea where I am in relation to the other students."

"Ron Weasley, Gryffindor."

"Susan Bones, Hufflepuff."

"Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hufflepuff."

"Mandy Brocklehurst, Ravenclaw."

"Anthony Goldstein, Ravenclaw."

"Draco Malfoy, Slytherin."

Once everyone was done with introductions, Napaliebalous continued. "Great. Now, why don't we get started with that sorting?"

Headmaster Napaliebalous then went over to his desk and pulled out a large wooden box. He flipped the lid open to reveal that it was filled with plain white candles.

"Ok. Now to begin the ceremony. When I call you up here I want you to think about the things that matter most to you. That will help the candle decide what house you belong in. Once the candle is lit it will take only a few seconds to spark. This color represents the house color. Just so you remember the house colors are Maroon for Orion, blue for Cassiopeia, purple for Indus, and green for Auriga. We will be going in alphabetical order, so the first person up will be Susan Bones." Napaliebalous said.

Susan looked a bit nervous as she came up to the front of the room. Napaliebalous handed her a white candle and another candle that had already been lit. Susan touched the lit candle to her white one and the wick quickly caught fire. It burned normally for a few seconds before beginning to shoot large blue sparks. The sparks startled all the students, but the teachers were not fazed.

"Cassiopeia!" Napaliebalous shouted. Susan seemed releaved that the sorting ceremony was over for her and she went over to Mr. McVickerson, who seemed excited that she would be joining his house.

Hermione suddenly decided that she loved Justin and wanted to confess her love by carving his name into the table.

"What are you doing?" asked Napaliebalous. Hermione was embarrassed that she had been caught in the act, but admitted the truth.

"I love Justin! He's mine!" she yelled. Hermione then grabbed Justin's wrist and dragged him out of the room. As he was being pulled out the door, Justin gave a thumbs up and a smile to the rest of the stunned room.

When the two were alone in the hall outside Napaliebalous' office, Justin shoved Hermione up against the nearest wall and latched his mouth into her neck. Hermione was obviously pleased with this chain of events, as she started calling, "Justin... _Justin_... JUSTIN!"

Justin's eyse suddenly snapped open. He looked around the room at the rest of his classmates and soon-to-be teachers, who were all staring at him expectantly.

"Justin, it's your turn to be sorted," said Hermione.

Justin felt his face heat up as he mumbled, "Oh, right," and walked over to stand in front of Napaliebalous' desk. Napaliebalous handed Justin a plain white candle and the already lit candle that Susan and Mandy (who had been sorted into Auriga while Justin was fantasizing) had already used. Justin held the white candle in one hand and brought the other up to touch the wicks together. Just as Susan's and Mandy's had done before his, Justin's candle burned normally for a moment. Then, it errupted into bright blue sparks.

"Wonderful! Looks like you'll be joining Susan in Cassiopeia with Mr. McVickerson. Congratulations."

"Thanks," Justin mumbled as he walked over to stand behind Susan, trying to hide himself from the people who were still staring at him, wondering why he had been so out of it just a few moments ago.

Their attentions were soon averted, though, as Anthony was called forward. He was sorted into Auriga along with Mandy. After Anthony was done, Hermione was sorted into Orion, Malfoy into Indus, and Harry and Ron into Orion. When the sorting was completed, Napaliebalous spoke again.

"Well, that seems to be in order. I'll let you all get aquainted with your new heads of house. They will now show you to your rooms. Then, you can all go around and explore the castle. If you don't feel like exploring, you can either stay in your room, or go to the dining hall to wait for lunch to be served, which is at noon. I, personally, think it would be boring just sitting there for hours. Any questions?"

Hermione's hand shot up.

"Oh, no. Not already," groaned Ron.

"Quiet, you," said Hermione while glaring at Ron. She then turned around and smiled sweetly. "Mr. Napaliebalous, Sir, where can I find the library?"

"Up the main staircase and directly across the hall. The doors should be open any time you wish to use the facilities, unless the librarian suddenly decides to go on a three-week vacation without telling anyone like she did last year. Took us a week and a half to figure out how to unlock the crazy thing. Anyway, moving on. Any more questions?"

Nobody moved.

"Ok, then, everyone out. I have a nap to take before the rest of the student body decides to show up."

The teachers lead all of their new students out of the principal's office. Mrs. Gorman and Miss Truehardt lead their students out the door and down the hall to the right, going in opposite directions at the end of the hall. Mrs. Spenace and Mr. McVickerson did the same thing, but to the left.

As the former Gryffindor students were walking though the halls to the Orion dorms, they noticed that it was not quite as difficult to remember the way as it was at Hogwarts. There were not as many twists and turns in the corridors at Allteline. They also noticed that the artwork on the walls did not look professional. Upon closer inspection they figured out that it was, in fact, all done by students (past and present) that attended the school. There were painting, drawings, photographs, and even a few sculptures here and there. One sculpture that they found particularly interesting was a wire frog. Every few seconds his tongue would flick out of his mouth and catch a fly.

Before they could enjoy much more of the artwork, though, Mrs. Gorman informed them that they had arrived at the entrance to Orion's common room. The entrance was a very ornately carved wooden door, with pieces of maroon stained glass at random intervals in the design. In the middle of the door was a large brass knocker.

"To get into the common room, you have to knock the appropriate number of times. The number changes every week, so it's more difficult for students from other houses to get in. Not that that would happen in the first place," Mrs. Gorman said with a pointed look at her three newest students.

"Oh, no, of course not," said Hermione.

Mrs. Gorman nodded her head at Hermione, then turned to the door and knocked seven times. The door swung open and the group went inside. Mrs. Gorman then explained to them that they had to be in the common room by ten o'clock every night, boys dorms were through the door on the right side of the fireplace, girls dorms were through the door on the left side of the fireplace, and bathrooms were across the hall from bedrooms.

"Well, I guess you guys are free to roam now. If you decide to go outside, make sure you don't leave the school grounds. It you have any questions you can come find me in my office; there are maps on the walls around the school so you'll be able to find it, or you can ask one of the other teachers. Have fun!" With that, the Head of Orion disappeared from the room, leaving the students to entertain themselves.

"So, what should we do now?" asked Harry.

"I don't know about you, but I'm headed to th-"

"The library, we know." Ron said. Hermione sniffed, turned on her heel, and left the room without another word to her two best friends.

"Come on Harry, let's go look around, get used to this place."

"Alright."

Harry and Ron spent the next few hours wandering the halls of their home for the coming school year. They walked through all the floors and looked in all the classrooms. They even managed to make their way to the library to inform Hermione that they were on their way to the dining hall, as lunch would be served in ten minutes. Hermione waved in their direction, letting them know that she would be along in a

few minutes.

As the two boys left the library and started down the main staircase, they met up with Susan and Justin.

"So, what do you guys think of this place so far?" Harry asked.

"I think it's great," Justin replied. "Did you see that they've even got electricity? It's a magical form, of course, but I heard someone in our dorm say that they had a TV in there."

"TV? Surely you don't think you'll have any spare time to be watching anything? I've just been to the library here, and there are so many things to study. I don't think I'll have time for spare time. The rest of you should check it out. I'm sure you'll agree." Hermione had caught up with the group just before they entered the dining hall.

"Hermione, why would we-" Ron stopped mid-sentence as he looked into the dining hall after the doors had open. "Well, this is certainly different."

Instead of there being four long house tables, there were many smaller tables that were set in house sections. The color of the tablecloths on the tables determined what house the section belonged to. Each section had about eight tables.

"Ah, children, welcome!" Napaliebalous greeted the students as they walked in. "Please find a seat. As you can tell, each house has its own section, but you don't actually have to sit there if you really don't feel like it.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron all headed for the Orion tables. The other students began to head for their own tables, but realizing that there would be two per table, decided to follow the trio to the Orion table.

Draco walked in a few moments later. He hadn't heard what Napaliebalous had said, but he was able to figure out the layout of the dining hall. Looking to his left, he noticed all the Hogwarts students were sitting at the Orion table. At first he was going to ignore them and sit at the Indus table, but he realized he didn't want to sit alone.So, going against his best interest, Draco made his way over to the Orion table and sat down next to Anthony Goldstein. The entire table stared at Draco for a minute before he said anything.

"What are you all staring at? You're all sitting together; you really didn't expect me to sit by myself, did you?" The rest of the table remained silent. Ron was about to answer Draco when the table was suddenly filled with food. Draco was instantly forgotten. The food was a little different than what was normally served at Hogwarts, but all was good, and there was definitely just as much, if not more.

The kids had a great time sampling all the new things they found. Ron seemed to like everything. Even Draco found that he was enjoying himself, though he tried to hide it by not talking to anyone.

Eventually everyone had eaten their fill and left the dining hall. Outside the hall, the students went their separate ways, with Hermione heading straight toward the library again. Harry and Ron decided they wanted to wander some more and explore the rest of the school. Since they hadn't yet visited the dungeons, they chose that as their next destination.

As soon as they stepped down into the dungeon, they could tell that it was very different from Hogwarts. The most obvious difference was that it was quite warm, and very well lit. It was almost like a second floor of the castle, just under the first floor instead of above. The boys also agreed that it just felt like a friendlier place.

"And you know that we're not going to have problems with the potions teacher here, we've already met her. She seems like a nice person," said Ron as they found the door that led to the potions classroom after a few hours of aimless wandering. "I think this may be our best school year yet."

"You know, I think you may be right. Most of the teachers here seem pretty nice. Especially the ones we've met already.

"Looks like we've made our way through the whole dungeon," Harry said when they stepped back out of the classroom. "What time is it?"

"Um, I think around four," answered Ron.

"OK. We've still got a while before we have to be back for the sorting. What should we do now?"

"We could go look around outside. We haven't done that yet."

"That sounds good."

After the two agreed on what to do next, they walked back upstairs. They started heading for the doors when they got to the Entrance Hall, but stopped a few feet short when someone burst in from the other side. It turned out to be a sopping wet blonde girl, who looked to be about the same age as them. And she looked extraordinarily upset.

"Grace Sadler, get back here so I can beat you in the head with a blunt object!" she yelled.

Harry and Ron then heard, "Bring it on, biznitch!" from somewhere near the top of the staircase. They turned just in time to see another girl, again about the same age, but with red hair, run around the corner and out of sight. Harry and Ron turned back to look at the blonde girl again, but she was already running up the stairs, chasing the red-haired girl.

The boys looked at each other with confused expressions on their faces before the doors opened again. This time, two boys entered. They both had matching light brown hair and blue eyes. There was no way they couldn't be twins. They were quickly followed by another who had brown eyes and dark brown hair that was spiked and tipped neon orange.

After another moment of hysterical laughter, one of the twins stopped long enough to ask, "Did you see a red head and an angry, wet blonde come in here?"

Harry answered first. "Yeah, the angry, wet blonde chased the red head up the stairs."

"Perfect!" said the other twin. "Thanks."

The three new boys walked away from Harry and Ron and toward the stairs. As they were leaving, Harry and Ron heard their conversation.

"Grace really does know how to start a new school year the right way. She hasn't failed to make us laugh yet."

Yeah, but it's too bad that Nicole is usually the one on the receiving end of her antics. It puts her in a bad mood. Hopefully she doesn't turn violent this time. Last year was scary."

All of the boys shivered in remembrance.

"Poor door, never had a chance. Oh well, let's go see if she's locked Grace in a closet yet."

The boys had finally made it to the top of the stairs and disappeared behind the same corner as the girls had.

"OK, that was interesting," commented Ron after a minute of silence. "An angry, wet blonde did just chase a red head in here, threatening to cause her serious harm, and three guys did just come through here basically cheering her on, right?"

"Yep, that's about what I got out of it," Harry responded.

"Right, I think it's safe to say that this school is a little bit strange."

"Probably."

"Let's go outside now."

"Good idea."

The boys then continued out of the school and into the grounds, trying not to think too much about the strange scene they had just encountered. While they were outside they looked over just about everything, paying special attention to the area devoted to Quidditch. They also found the place where students were being dropped off and watched that for a while. When more and more students started showing up faster, they decided it would probably be a good time to go inside and get ready for dinner.

They were just starting to walk to the Dining Hall when they saw the rest of the Hogwarts students come out of it. Hermione and the others spotted Harry and Ron and motioned for them to go over to her. They did so.

"There you are!" said Hermione. "We have a meeting to be to in five minutes! Why weren't you in here sooner?"

"Uh, we didn't know we had to be at a meeting?" Ron answered uncertainly. He didn't want to say something wrong and make Hermione any more flustered than she already was.

"Anyway, we do need to be there in five minutes, so let's go." Hermione then led the Hogwarts group to the classroom that had been specified. She opened the door and let everyone in, then followed the last person.

"Oh, you're here. Good to see you again," said Mrs. Gorman. "I'm glad you all showed up on such short notice. Sorry about that, by the way. We just thought to have this meeting about an hour ago," she explained.

"That's perfectly alright," said Hermione.

"Great," said Mrs. Gorman happily. "Now, we're just waiting for one more person to show up." This time they could hear the tiniest bit of annoyance in her voice.

Suddenly, the door swung open and in walked the last member of their congregation. Harry and Ron immediately recognized her as the red-head being chased by the angry, wet blonde from earlier.

"Miss Sadler, so glad you could make it," greeted Mrs. Gorman.

"Sorry I'm late, I was locked in a closet for two hours."

"Ah, the work of Nicole Newman, no doubt. What happened this year, feathers?"

"Nope, something completely new. Want to hear about it?"

"Maybe later. Right now we have to get through this meeting so we can get to the Dining Hall before the sorting begins.

"As all of our students have already been informed, Allteline School of Sorcerery will be host to exchange students from Hogwarts for the first half of the school year. This meeting was called to introduce our sixth year head students to the exchange students, since these are the people you will probably be spending the most time with. I expect my students to help introduce you to others, and make your stay here as comfortable as possible," she ended, turning her glance to the Hogwarts students.

Just then, everyone in the room heard a rather loud thud, then a grumbled, "Ow! Stupid door... monkey... handle..." come from the other side of the door. All of the Allteline students laughed when they heard the voice. Mrs. Gorman sighed.

"Miss Newman?"

The grumbling suddenly stopped. "Yes?" came from the other side of the door. This seemed to amuse the Allteline students even more.

"If you would like, you can come in rather than try to listen through the door."

"OK."

The door opened, and in walked a blonde girl, whom Harry and Ron also recognized from the earlier scene in the Entrance Hall. She came fully into the room and walked over to stand next to Grace.

"I should have known I wouldn't be able to separate you two. I'm surprised you've been able to function properly without the other by your side for the last ten minutes.

"Anyway, we've only got a few more minutes before the sorting begins, so I'll just go around the room, point to people, and give their names. Starting with our guests; this is Hermione Granger, Susan Bones, Anthony Goldstien, Harry Potter, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Ron Weasley, Mandy Brocklehurst, and Draco Malfoy.

"And our students are; Grace Sadler, Jimmie MacMary, and Nicole Newman, who isn't actually a head, but seems to show up wherever Grace does, from Orion, Matild Hendrick and John Hudson from Cassiopeia, Bridget Downey and Tony Kishida from Auriga, and Tiffany Ploetz and Wesley Regner from Indus.

"OK, now that you all know each other's names, I'm going to ask the Hogwarts students to find the members of the house they've been sorted into. Once you've done that, you can leave and go down to the Dining Hall, but please stay with your house members. You'll need to sit in your own sections for tonight only."

The students all began moving around the room, looking for the other members of their houses. When most of them had stopped moving, Mrs. Gorman said, "Is everyone ready? OK, let's go." She then led all of them out of the room.

Grace was the one who started the conversation in their newly-formed little group. "Are you the real Harry Potter?" she asked.

"Yes," Harry answered, unsure where this conversation was leading.

"Does that mean that you're the boy who didn't die?" She said. Harry was taken back a little by her comment. He wasn't sure if he had ever been called that before.

"Umm… do you mean the boy who lived?"

"Yeah, same thing." She said.

"Yes, that's me too."

"Fun! Can I touch your scar?"

"Um, OK, I guess."

They all stopped walking so Grace could reach over and touch Harry's forehead.

"Wow, the Harry Potter," she said, sounding awed. "OK, I'm bored now." She suddenly lost interest and turned around, only to start walking in the direction of the Dining Hall again.

Harry looked at the rest of the group, confused. Ron shrugged at him and they all started walking again.

After a minute of slightly awkward silence between the new aquaintances, Ron started the second conversation of the day.

"Hey, you're not wet anymore," he said while looking at Nicole. Nicole glared at him while Grace and Jimmie started laughing again.

"It's not funny!" Nicole snapped. Grace and Jimmie did stop laughing, but couldn't keep the grins of amusement off their faces.

"What exactly happened to cause you to be wet?" Harry asked, not sure that he wanted to continue on this topic for fear of meeting the same consequence as Grace apparently had.

Grace, on the other hand, seemed to think this topic was perfectly safe and answered immediately, "Invisible water balloons! She literally didn't see what hit her. It was great; you guys should have been there," she said, gesturing to Ron, Harry, and Hermione. Nicole once again glared at Grace, but kept her comments to herself.

The rest of the way to the Dinning Hall, Nicole was silent, while Grace and Jimmie made casual conversation with the new students. Nicole's attitude changed almost immediately once they reached the Dinning Hall, though. Gone was her angry look, replaced with one of happiness. She waved vigorously at someone across the room and then ran ahead of the group. Grace, leading the group, followed her as they made their way to one of Orion's tables.

Nicole had already sat down, and was deep in conversation with two girls; one with light brown hair, the other with blonde hair. Harry guessed that the two were sisters because they both had the same piercing blue eyes. Nicole looked up from her conversation and motioned all of them to sit down. They did so, with Grace sitting next to Nicole. Grace was drawn into their conversation almost at once, and the trio just sat there and watched the four girls gossip about everything under the sun. Finally, after a few minutes (and Jimmie clearing his throat loudly a few times), the girls realized how rude they had been to their guests.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Nicole said, looking at the three. "Where are my manners? I haven't introduced you guys to anyone at the table." She began the introductions with the blonde girl sitting next to her. "This is Delana Mayvick, and that is Shana Mayvick," she said pointed to the girl with light brown hair who was sitting next to Hermione. Shana and Delana both said their respective hellos, before Nicole continued with the people sitting on the other end of the table.

"The boy sitting next to Jimmie is Kevin Senser. Oh, just to let you all know, I totally dated him second year," Nicole said with a smile. Harry looked at the boy sitting next to Jimmie. He was the boy with neon orange tipped hair from the Entrance Hall Incident.

"And what a mistake it was." He laughed. Nicole gave him a look.

"What! I was a good girlfriend!" She yelled playfully.

"Uh huh." Kevin said sarcastically. So great that you pointed out every guy in the castle to me that you thought had a great butt, and wanted me to think the same thing. I swear for a while you wanted me to be gay." The table erupted with laughter, and Nicole muttered something under her breath.

"Anyway, moving along," Nicole said, trying to get the attention back off herself. "Sitting next to Grace are Ryan and Brian Sulok." She said, pointing to the boys that Harry had decided had to be twins earlier.

"As of right now, the one sitting next to Grace is Brian, and the other is Ryan…I think." She thought about it for a moment, then continued on. "Really, they are almost impossible to tell apart, so don't worry about calling them the right name. Most people are usually wrong anyway." Both boys nodded in agreement. Nicole suddenly remembered something. "Oh, and just to let you know, Ryan and Brian are not dating, and do not want to date Shana and Delana."

Harry and Ron looked at each other before they both looked to Hermione for the answer. Hermione just shrugged her shoulders and, after a brief pause, spoke up.

"Umm…I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but why do we need to know this?" she asked.  
Nicole seemed confused by Hermione's question, but suddenly realized her mistake.

"Oh! I forgot to tell you! Shana and Delana are twins, like Ryan and Brian. Most people think that it would be great for two sets of twins to hook up. Sometime I forget that Shana and Delana aren't identical like Ryan and Brian, so you have to tell people. Sorry for the misunderstanding."

Harry and Ron once again looked at each other. This was definitely going to be an interesting school year. Finally, Nicole got around to introducing the trio.

"And these people," she said, pointing to the three, "are exchange students from Hogwarts, and yes Shana, that does make them British. This is Hermione Granger, Ron Weasly, and Harry Potter."

After his name was said, Harry tensed up a little bit. He expected the table to fall silent and stare at him, like normal, but he was completely surprised when none of that happened. The table went on talking and gossiping, either not knowing, or not caring who he was. For once he was just one of them, just another student.

The table talked amongst itself for anther few minutes, until Professor Napaliebalous walked through a side door at the front of the room. Following closely behind him was a bunch of students. All looked a little frightened, and Harry was quite certain that they must be the first years. They all had on the same black robes, which matched the one Harry, and the rest of the students were wearing, except theirs were all missing their house crest.

Napaliebalous walked to the middle of the room, and made a quick speech to start of the sorting ceremony.

"Good Evening and Welcome back to Allteline. For our first years, hello and welcome. It is wonderful to see all your smiling faces back this year. Before we start the sorting I want to point out that this year we are hosting some students from Hogwarts. I suggest that you all at least meet them during their time here. Well that's all that I have to say for now, so lets begin the sorting. With that Miss Truehardt got up from the staff table and made her way to the front of the room.

Harry hadn't noticed that the teachers were sitting at a table at the front of the room, but as Napaliebalous took his seat, he realized that there was not a seat empty. How he was able to miss a table with that amount of people, he did not know.

Miss Truehardt grabbed the box of candles off the floor and placed them on a stool in the front of the room. The ceremony was now ready to begin. She got a list out of her pocket and read off the first name, "Bailey, Dale."

With that a small boy with short blond hair worked his way out of the group. He took his spot standing next to the box of candles. Miss Truehardt handed him his unlit candle, then handed him one that was lit. He touched the candles together, and waited a few seconds for it to spark. When it finally did spark green sparks, it made him jump a little bit.

"Auriga," Miss Truehardt called out. With that a green crest appeared on the boy's all black robe, and the Auriga tables began to cheer. Dale made his way over to their tables just as Miss Tuehardt called out the next name, "Bracht, Cody." He went through the sorting process and ended up in Orion. The house cheered with their new addition and he made his way to the table the house had set aside for all the new first years.

After the first few new students had been sorted, Harry started losing interest and got lost in his own thoughts. He was there for a little while, until he heard his name being called.

"Harry?"

"Huh? Oh, Grace, what?"

"Are you excited about the party tonight?" she asked.

"Um, what party?"

Grace stared at him for a second before turning to the rest of the table. "Why didn't anyone tell them about the party?" she demanded quietly, since the sorting was still going on. Everyone took turns looking at each other, then Kevin spoke.

"Well, wouldn't that technically be your job? I mean, you are one of the head students who's supposed to be responsible for introducing them to new people and all that crap."

"Oh, right, forgot about that," said Grace. She then turned back to Harry and started speaking to him as though that part of the conversation had not just taken place. "Well, every year on the first night back at school Orion has a huge party. It's really supposed to be just a little party to help introduce the first years to the older students and give everyone a chance to socialize after being apart for the summer, but that's never how it ends. Someone usually ends up doing something worthy of being repeated for at least the rest of the week. At one party, I think it was in my third year, one of the seventh years was showing off a spell she had learned over the summer and stuck half the room to the ceiling. I'd never seen Mrs. Gorman that mad before that, and haven't seen it since. It took until three A.M. to get everyone down. We all got a lovely little chat the next morning about the appropriate application of sticking charms. But that was just a one-time thing," she added quickly at Harry's look of horror. "It's not been that bad since."

"Oh, ok, I guess that's a good thing," Harry replied. "There isn't a chance of that happening this year, just because we're here, is there?" Before Grace could answer, the hall broke out in rather loud cheers as a girl, whose name Harry thought was Katie Hall, was sorted into Cassiopeia after standing at the front of the hall for nearly eight full minutes. Her candle was half melted by the time a few blue sparks finally made themselves known.

Grace looked back at Harry and said, "I really don't think that will happen, but there's never a definite answer with these people. Most of them are still too afraid of the punishment we almost received after the last incident to try anything like that."

"What punishment would that have been?" Harry asked curiously.

Grace gave a little shudder before answering, "Confinement to the castle other than Christmas and Easter. Apparently they thought that if we weren't able to behave inside the school, then there was no way we could outside without adult supervision. I'm glad that never happened. I don't know what I would have done if I wasn't able to go shopping every weekend."

"Well, it's really not that bad," said Hermione, who had been listening in to their conversation. "We seem to get along just fine with those conditions." Grace looked at her in disbelief.

"Yeah, and I bet none of you has ever had to polish an entire trophy room without magic," added Ron. Nicole looked away and whistled.

Kevin then decided he wanted to share some of his experiences in detention. "Last year I had to clean the potions room, without magic, after the second years learned how to make color-changing ink. I was multi-colored for two weeks."

"I think I can outdo you all," said Harry. "I once had to help Gilderoy Lockhart write his fan mail."

Everyone at the table immediately agreed with Harry and grimaced at the mere thought of such a horrible punishment, except Shana. "You mean, author of _Magical Me,_ Gilderoy Lockhart? You got to meet him?"

"Yeah," Harry answered. "He was our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in second year."

"Really? That is so not fair. What was he like? I want to know all about him," Shana said.

Harry and Ron looked at each other, while Hermione started describing their second year, in great detail, to Shana. That was soon drowned out, though, by the cheers of the Indus students as Christine Mahlie joined them.

"So, while they're all off in their own little world over there," Jimmie said, indicating Hermione and Shana,

"Why don't you two tell us a little bit about yourselves. Let's start with… what is your ambition in life?" he waited for a few seconds, thoroughly enjoying the looks of bewilderment on Harry's and Ron's faces before laughing and saying, "I'm only joking, you don't have to answer that one. How many brothers and sisters do you guys have?"

Ron answered first. "Six; five older brothers and a younger sister. It gets really annoying sometimes, so don't start saying anything about how cool it would be to have that many siblings."

After Harry's answer, no one had any problems finding anything to talk about during the rest of the sorting and through the feast. Sooner than they had imagined, dinner was over and everyone was heading to their common rooms for the night. When the Orion students got to the door that led to their common room, a seventh year head named Nina Kaiser knocked seven times and she and Scott Haggarty (the other seventh year head) entered, telling everyone to wait just a few minutes while they set up.

When three and a half minutes had passed, the doors opened again and everyone that was still standing out in the hall was invited in. As they crossed the threshold into the room, they saw that it had been decorated maroon, purple, and sky blue tye-dye. There were streamers in those colors, along with posters, tablecloths, and most of the furniture. There was also a disco ball hanging from the middle of the ceiling. On the tables there were refreshments, although they had just eaten. The refreshments were both magical and muggle. There were things like chocolate frogs and butterbeer, along with Coke and Cheetos.

"Dude, these are sweet decorations," exclaimed Delana.

"I agree," said Grace.

"Me, too" said Brian.

"Well, it's nice to know that you've deemed it acceptable," Nina said. "Now we can officially welcome everyone back to school." With that, music started playing and people started dancing, eating (again), and socializing.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were the slightest bit uncomfortable at first, but their new friends helped them get past that very quickly. By the end of the night they had met dozens of new people and realized that there were actually some normal people in Orion house. Although the party was still raging at around midnight, Harry, Ron, and Hermione decided to head for their dormitories. They made their way over to the food table where Grace, Nicole, and a few other students were socializing. Once they got closer, they realized that Nicole was actually the one socializing, while Grace seemed to be hording bottles of butterbeer and Coke, presumably for a later snack.

They all said good night to one another before the trio made their way to their dorms. Once Harry and Ron were inside they immediately changed into their pajamas and flopped down onto their beds without saying anything to each other. They were exhausted and fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

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A/N: ok, long chapter, i know, but it was fun, right? if you think so, please review and say so. it's depressing when authors don't get reviews. it makes them not care if they write or not. considering this chapter took three months to finish, you can tell what kind of motivation we've been getting. please review? i'll love you forever. so will Clam. promise. and i'll go through and thank everyone that does. they might even get a special prize...

wonder


	6. BOB

a/n: whoo! over 700 reads! that makes me really happy. we literally got over 600 within the first two days the last chapter was posted. wow, has it really been three months already? i feel really bad that it takes so long to update this story, but that's just the way it has to be, i guess. we really do try to write the chapters as quickly as possible, but things come up and we have to stop writing for ungodly amounts of time. oh well. i hope everyone enjoys this chapter. and since there definitely won't be another update for a while, happy halloween and thanksgiving to anyone who celebrates! also, as promised, responses to reviews are at the end. oh, i've just been informedthat i musttell everyone that clam says "hi." she's sorry she wasn't able to speak for herself, but she had more important things to do. like eat.

wonder

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Chapter 6 - B.O.B.

The next morning came too quickly for both Harry and Ron. Although they had gotten a decent amount of sleep, the previous day had fully worn them out and they longed for just a few more hours in their beds. Still half asleep, they changed into their clothes for the day and made their way down to the Dining Hall. Not surprisingly, Hermione was already there, sitting at one of Orion's tables, deep in discussion with Shana and Delana. Harry and Ron went over to the table and sat down next to Hermione.

All three girls looked up as the boys sat down. They all said their hellos, then the girls went back to their conversation about shoes.

"Wow, Hermione's only been here a day and she's already one of them," Ron said to Harry.

"I know," Harry said, watching the girls talk. "Maybe she'll drag them to the library with her instead of us from now on. That would be a nice change."

After a few minutes of the boys eating in silence, they were joined by Jimmie and Brian.

"Good morning," Brian said in greeting. "Man, you guys missed the best part of the party last night."

"Really? What happened?" asked Ron.

"Well, we started playing Twister about ten minutes after you went to bed. It started out normally, but then more and more people started joining in. After a while there were like 20 people trying to play on that tiny, little mat. After a few turns with all those people trying to maneuver around each other, everyone fell into a huge pile. It took a while for everyone to get untangled and get up. When most of the people had finally stood up, everyone noticed that Nicole and Kevin were still on the floor, apparently making out. After a minute, Nicole realized that everyone was watching them. She sat up and punched Kevin for 'taking advantage of her,' then disappeared for a while."

"Oh, that's not good. Is she still mad at him?" Harry asked, looking concerned.

"Oh, I don't think so," Jimmie answered. "Considering they were caught an hour later doing the same thing in a corner of the common room. They're sitting together at one of the Cassiopeia tables right now."

Harry and Ron turned around in their seats to see that they were, in fact, sitting right next to each other, looking like any other happy couple in the school. Except for the fact that Kevin had a black eye and flinched the tiniest bit every time Nicole made a sudden movement.

"To tell you the truth, most people have been waiting for them to get back together. Some people even made bets as to how long it would take. Actually, that reminds me." Brian said as his face fell, "I made a bet with Natalie Hiatt, from Cassiopeia, in fourth year; I owe her $50. And she never forgets anything. See, here she comes now," Brian said, pointing to a girl walking toward their table. "You never saw me," he said, then ducked away from the table to join one in the Auriga section.

Just then, the girl Brian had pointed at stopped in front of the Orion table. "Have any of you seen Brian? I could have sworn I just saw him sitting here a second ago."

"Nope, sorry, can't help you there," said Jimmie. "You must have seen Ryan sitting here. He just left to use the bathroom."

"Oh... Stupid twins. I can never tell them apart. Well, if you see Brian, tell him he owes me money." With that, Natalie stormed off to continue her search.

"She's kind of scary," Ron commented.

"Kinda," Jimmie agreed. "Oh, look, here come our schedules."

They all looked over to the side of the Dining Hall where a group of teachers were setting up some tables and putting half-sheets of paper on them.

"Did someone just say 'schedules'?" asked Hermione. Jimmie nodded. "Where?" Hermione asked again. Jimmie pointed. Hermione suddenly jumped up from the table and almost ran to the other side of the Dining Hall to pick up her schedule.

"Well, she hasn't been completely transformed," said Harry as he watched her dash away.

"You mean, she's actually excited to start classes?" came from Delana.

"Oh, yes, very much so," Ron answered. "We were kind of hoping you two had somehow knocked that out of her, but I'm beginning to think that can't be done. By anyone."

By this time Hermione was already bounding back to the table, six schedules in hand.

"You are so slow," she stated. "I figured you would at least be on your way to the table by now. Here, I picked up everyone's schedule while I was up there since it didn't look like any of you were going to get up there anytime soon." She then handed the schedules to everyone at the table.

Harry took his schedule when Hermione handed it to him and read through it. It would be easy enough to remember. They had eight periods altogether, but only four per day. The had the same four classes at the same time every other day. Harry compared his class list with Ron and Hermione and found that they would be together all day, every day, except when Hermione was gone for her Ancient Runes class (Harry and Ron had a free period during that time).

"Does anyone have anything to do for the next half hour, since class doesn't start until 8:30?" Harry asked the table.

Jimmie pulled out a deck of cards and asked, "Have you ever played ERS?"

"Um, no, not that I can recall," Harry answered.

As fate would have it, just as this conversation was starting, Nicole, Kevin, and Grace were walking past the table on their way back to the Cassiopeia section.

"ERS? Who's playing?" Nicole demanded as she sat down next to Ron, completely forgetting about going back to her original table. She was followed by Kevin and Grace.

"Me, Harry, Ron, Delana, Shana, and Hermione - oh, she's reading. Nevermind, then, it's just the five of us," Jimmie answered.

"Fun! Have they ever played before?" asked Grace, indicating Ron and Harry.

"No, we haven't. Could someone explain the rules, please?" Ron requested as Jimmie started dividing the deck between the eight players. Kevin was the one to explain.

"First of all, the entire deck is passed out between all the players. It doesn't matter if everyone has the same number of cards or not. Then, we go around the table and lay down one card at a time. If someone lays down a face card, jack, queen, king, or ace, the next person has a certain number of chances to lay down another face card. If the first person lays down a jack, the next person only has one chance to lay down another face card. Queen gets two chances, king gets three, and ace gets four. If the second person fails to lay down another face card, the first person gets to take the pile of cards. Also, if someone lays down a card and the next person lays down the same card, like two fours in a row, that's a double and the first person to smack the pile gets to take it. Whoever has all the cards, or the most cards, at the end wins. Ready to play?"

Harry and Ron just looked at him as if he had tried to explain to them how to operate on the human brain.

"Well, we'll help you along the way," Kevin said as he looked at the two.

"Hurry up, let's play already!" demanded Delana.

They started playing after that and ended their game just as people were starting to leave the Dining Hall to head to their first class.

"Yay! I win again!" exclaimed Shana as they were packing up their things.

"Wow, I never thought I would see a card game end in bloodshed," said Harry. Somewhere towards the end of the game, someone had laid down a double and everyone smacked the pile at the same time. Delana came back with a giant gash on the side of her hand and had yelled at Nicole for not cutting her 'daggers' before joining the game.

Everyone laughed at Harry's comment and started heading for the door.

The first two classes that Harry, Ron, Hermione attended at Allteline were much like Hogwarts. The first class they had was Herberlogy with Indus. It was a fairly normal lesson. They were basically starting where they had left off at Hogwarts. Defense Against the Dark Arts with Cassiopeia was about the same. They were using a little bit more advanced magic at Allteline, but since the Hogwarts students had spent much of the previous year in the DA, they felt that they would have no problems getting caught up and keeping up with the rest of the class. Before they knew it, the first half of the day was over and they were heading back to the Dining Hall for lunch.

When the former Gryffindors entered the Dining Hall, Hermione spotted Shana and Delana and immediately went to join them at the Auriga table they had chosen to occupy. Harry and Ron were going to join the girls, since they didn't want to sit with people they didn't know, but someone had suddenly come up behind them and started dragging them off in a different direction. When they finally reached a table, Harry and Ron saw that Nicole and Kevin had been the ones to bring them there. They also noticed that everyone from breakfast, minus Hermione, Shana, and Delana, was sitting at the table they had ended up at. And Jimmie was once again pulling out a deck of cards.

"We're having a rematch," Grace explained at once. "No one likes playing with Shana because she always seems to win. I mean _always_. She's won every game she's ever played. You don't just get lucky that many times."

"Oh, ok," said Harry. He, Ron, and the rest of the people that had been standing sat down and started reaching for whatever they wanted to eat at that moment. After everyone had what they wanted, the food was moved out of the middle of the table and the game started. After only five minutes of play, Jimmie was declared the winner.

"Wow, that was really short compared to this morning," said Ron.

"That's short compared to a lot of the games we've played," said Grace. "Some of them have lasted through the entire lunch period."

"Oh well," said Nicole. "Now we get to concentrate on more important things, like food. Or homework. Or that really hot blonde guy sitting at that table over there."

"Ooh, he is really hot," Grace commented after looking over her shoulder at said blonde.

"What do you think, Kevin?" Nicole asked.

"I think I refuse to be involved in this conversation," he answered.

"Oh, come on, there's no way you could think he's not good-looking."

"Didn't we just have a very similar discussion to this yesterday?" he asked, becoming just slightly annoyed.

"Oh, right," said Nicole. "Don't you think you could try to be gay, just for a day?"

Kevin sighed and rolled his eyes. "If I was gay, you wouldn't be my girlfriend."

Nicole sat in silent thought for a moment, then came back with, "Well, how about bi?"

"No."

"Fine then, be that way." Kevin and Nicole refused to speak to each other for the rest of lunch.

About five minutes before the end of the lunch period, Napaliebalous stood at the front of the Dining Hall and called for everyone's attention.

"Now, as you all know," he started, "every year, at the beginning of October we have our annual Battle of the Bands contest." At this point there were many loud cheers and whistles. "Yes, yes, it's very exciting, I know. Anyway, I just wanted to remind you that the rules are the same as they have been every year. Every house must have a band if they want to be eligible for the prize. It doesn't matter how many people are in the band or what instruments are used, as long as there are some of each present. You guys have a month to get ready for this; it will take place the first Saturday in October. Ok, that's it. I believe you all have some sort of class to be in right about now." Just as Napaliebalous ended his speech, a bell sounded to signal the end of lunch.

The Hall was filled with excited chatter as the students started filing through the exit. Nicole, Grace, and Brian were obviously amongst the most excited. They were already discussing who would play what and what everyone was going to wear.

"If I were you I wouldn't pay any attention to anything they're saying right now," Kevin whispered to Harry and Ron.

"Why not?" Harry asked.

"They do the same thing every year; they make plans all day the day we get the announcement, then forget about it until about 24 hours before we have to perform," Kevin explained.

"Really? Every year?" Ron asked, a little amazed that they hadn't learned from their past mistakes.

"Yep, every year. Last year they even put a calendar up the first day so that they would get started earlier, but even that didn't help. The calendar ended up getting filled up with all the worthless things they do, and, of course, the battle was forgotten. Day before the battle; Grace wakes up and screams, realizing that they've completely forgotten about it. They ended up just piecing something together," Jimmie said, slowly shaking his head as he spoke.

"Have they ever been any good?" Harry asked, beginning to worry about his fellow Orion students' capabilities.

"Well, last year was definitely better than most. At least all the people knew what song they were performing. Second year, I think they ended up playing three songs at the same time. Never thought I would hear the bass part for 'Another One Bites the Dust' over 'I want it that way.'" Jimmie paused for a second and cringed. "Well, anyway, last year they decided that because of their lack of time, they would do a song everyone already knew. So, of course, we ended up with 'Baby One More Time' by Britney Spears. The good part was that the singers knew the words, and that the band could actually play something that resembled the song. The only major problem was that there were five Britneys. Two were slightly tone deaf and couldn't keep a beat. Nicole, of course, was the lead Britney. She was actually decent, but her skintight red leather outfit was just a little over the top. Pretty sure we were docked points there."

Harry and Ron looked on in disbelief. Ron was more confused by this whole 'Britney Spears' thing. Harry on the other hand, understood quite well, having watched many of her videos behind Dudley's back as Dudley decided who would be better to bring home to mummy dearest; Christina Aguilera or Britney spears. Harry always laughed when he thought of this. He had always thought that Dudley should probably be choosing between ham or turkey.

Jimmie finished explaining what exactly Britney Spears was to Ron just as they reached Transfiguration. Ron was a lot less confused about Britney Spears, but a lot more scared about imagining Nicole in a skin-tight, red, leather outfit.

Jimmie, Ron, and Harry made their way to seats in the back of the room. Hermione had already sat down near the front of the class, surrounded by Grace, Nicole, Shana, and Delana. Kevin had been sitting behind the girls, but moved as soon as he saw the boys enter the room.

"Hey," he said as he took a seat next to Jimmie. "I don't think I've ever been so happy to see other guys in my life."

"The girls driving you crazy?" Harry asked.

"Crazy isn't the word I would use. Clinically insane is much better terminology." He said. He glanced back over at the girls, who were now giggling loudly.

"What now?" Jimmie asked.

"Everything!" Kevin practically yelled. "I don't know what possessed me to get back with Nicole. She's demanding and controlling, and I'm pretty sure she scares the first years. Why can't I like girls that are more like Grace? At least she's nice to people, and definitely not demanding. Now I completely understand why Napaliebalous made Grace a head girl instead of Nicole."

Kevin was just getting into his rant when Mrs. Spenace walked into the classroom. He decided that it would probably be better to continue after class. All the other boys were relieved that he wasn't able to continue. It was his fault he was in that mess, not theirs.

Mrs. Spenace stood at the front of the room and waited for a moment for the room to get quite. When she realized that was not going to happen, she said loudly, "Good afternoon, class."

The class immediately became silent, and a few people mumbled a greeting back.

"Today's lesson will be a review for most of you. We will be reviewing for the next few classes, as a matter of fact, until I'm sure you're all ready to go on. For today we will be transforming three objects." With that, she flicked her wand and a red brick, a crystal goblet, and a piece of bread appeared on every desk.

"First, start with the brick. I want you all to change that into a working watch. I will subtract points if the watch doesn't work.

"Next, you'll change the goblet into a rose. I'm not picky about the color, but I do have a fondness for white roses," she said with a wink.

"Finally, I want you to change the piece of bread into a bootleg copy of _Gili_." The class looked at each other, wondering what, exactly, she was talking about.

"Just kidding. A little bit of Muggle humor," she added quickly, realizing that only a few students had gotten her joke. "For the piece of bread, I want you to change it into a silver plate. And please, people, don't eat the bread. I know you all just had lunch. Anyone who eats the bread will be docked major points, understand?" The class all shook their heads. "Then, without further ado, please begin. Once you've completed all three, please place them on my desk."

For the next 80 minutes, the class worked at transfiguring their items. Hermione, of course, finished well ahead of the rest of the class. A lot of the Allteline students were surprised at, and slightly jealous of, the speed with which she performed her required tasks. She was then given the rest of the class period to do whatever she liked; which was read up on what they would be studying the next day in charms.

At the end of the lesson, Kevin hurriedly packed his things away and ducked out of the classroom before anyone could ask him what he was doing. When the rest of the sixth year Orion guys caught up with him in their dorms, he finally answered them.

"I _really_ didn't want to be anywhere near Nicole. She refused to speak to me at lunch because I wouldn't change my sexual orientation to please her, and at the beginning of class she wanted to know what _my_ problem was! I wasn't aware I was the one with the problem! I'd rather just take a nap right now than deal with the ways her strange little mind works." Kevin then flopped down on his bed and closed his eyes, facing away from the door, and looking very much like he was going to do just as he had said.

At that precise moment, however, Nicole entered the room. "Kevin! Why did you run away from me like that? I wanted to talk to you."

"Go away. I don't want to talk to you right now." As soon as those words left his mouth, Kevin tensed and sat up. It was soon obvious why.

"What?" Nicole demanded. Harry was sure that the look on her face at that moment would have even sent his uncle running for cover. "What did you say to me?" she demanded again.

"Um... I said... What I meant was... oh, _fu-_"

"Right, we'll just be leaving now," Brian interrupted loudly.

"Yeah, see you later Kevin, Medusa - I mean Nicole," Ryan added. The twins and Jimmie then pulled Harry and Ron out of the room and slammed the door.

"What was that all about?" Ron asked.

Jimmie was about to answer, but suddenly had to save two other sixth year boys from walking into what was sure to be a nightmare.

"Hey, let us through," said Casey Wood.

"That's probably not a good idea at the moment," Jimmie said.

"Why not?" asked Eric Riggs, who was getting slightly annoyed.

"Kevin and Nicole are in there," Jimmie answered. Just then, something shattered on the inside of the door. The two other sixth years jumped and seemed to understand something about what Jimmie was saying that Harry and Ron still weren't able to pick up on.

"Oh, poor Kevin," Casey said, looking at the door. "Well, if you see him, tell him we're sorry we couldn't help." Another thud on the door sent Casey and Eric hurrying away.

"If?" asked Ron.

"Yeah, 'if.'" Jimmie answered. Ron looked at him questioningly. "Well, wouldn't you be trying to hide from that if you got a chance to get away from it?"

"Oh, I guess you're right. Um, does she get like that often?"

"No, not usually. Normally she'll only resort to violence if she's extremely annoyed by something. Like, being ignored, for example. See, right now Kevin is her boyfriend. In Nicole's mind, that means he doesn't have the option of not paying his undivided attention to her." Jimmie explained. "This happened a few times in second year, too. But they always ended up back together within six hours of one of these episodes, though, which is why I'm not too worried about any serious damage being done. It's just, no one really enjoys being around Nicole at these times. She's kinda creepy."

After this explanation, the group of boys found an empty space in the common room and sat down, intending to relax for their entire free period. This would have worked out fine, had a large group of girls not walked in at that particular moment and joined them. Hermione, Shana, Delana, Grace, and another girl that neither Harry nor Ron recognized all found seats in and around the already sitting boys and made themselves comfortable, talking and laughing loudly the whole time.

"Don't you girls ever shut up?" asked Ryan.

"No," was the blunt answer from the new girl. "You should know that by now, Ryan. You've been hanging out with those three longer than I have." The girl then looked over and saw Harry and Ron sitting on one of the couches next to Ryan.

"Oh, and you must be the other exchange students. Ok, Hermione told me which was which, let's see if I can remember. Ron's the red-head and Harry is the other one, right?" she said, looking to Hermione for confirmation.

"Yep," Hermione said.

"Yay! I feel smart now. I'm Starlett Kirk, by the way, but everyone just calls me Star. I'm in fifth year. Wow, you were right, Grace; they are cute." Everyone laughed at this statement, except Hermione, who merely chuckled. She stopped altogether when Star added, "Especially the red-head." Both of the boys started blushing when Star continued to check them out. Hermione decided it was time to change the subject.

"So, did everyone have a good first day of classes?" she asked the group. Everyone kind of mumbled an answer. Hermione looked pointedly at Harry and Ron.

"Oh, I had a great day," said Harry, catching on to what Hermione wanted to hear. He then nudged Ron.

"What - oh, I had a really good day, too. Learned loads of stuff," Ron said. Hermione smiled at the pair of them.

"That's wonderful. Well, I was thinking, since we'll all be here at this time every other day, why don't we start a little study group? It would be a lot of fun, and we could all make sure that no one falls behind in their schoolwork." At this suggestion, all of the Allteline students gaped at her. Harry and Ron, on the other hand, knew that the only way to get her to move on to another subject was to agree with her.

"That sounds like a great idea, Hermione," said Ron. Hermione beamed at him.

"Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" she squealed. "I'm going to go and start making up study schedules!" With that, Hermione got up from her seat and started heading to her dorm. On the way, though, she stopped to hug her two best friends, thanking them for agreeing with her.

After she left, all of the other students burst out laughing. This continued for a few minutes, until Star had regained enough control to ask, "She's not serious, is she?"

Ron, smiling sarcastically, answered, "Oh, yes, she's very serious." This caused everyone else to stop laughing and stare in disbelief.

"What?" came from one of the male twins.

"Yep, all of us are now going to be studying during this free period. Trust me," Harry began as they started to groan in protest, "it's better to have agreed now than try to get her to stop making us study. She won't stop. We've learned that after having to live with her for five years."

"Oh. Well, this kinda sucks. We never do work ahead of time," Brian complained.

"Yeah, I don't remember the last time I started an assignment before the day before it was due," added Ryan.

"Ooh, Nicole's not going to be happy about this. She probably hates work more than anyone here," said Grace. "Speaking of, where is Nicole? And Kevin? I haven't seen them since class got over."

"Um, Kevin and Nicole are... talking. Actually, I haven't heard anything smash against the wall in a good seven minutes. Maybe they're done with their chat already. I'll go find out," said Jimmie. He then got up off of the couch he was laying on and walked over to the dormitory door.

"Nicole was in one of her moods because Kevin wouldn't talk to her, wasn't she?" Grace asked. All of the boys nodded. "Well, as long as she didn't kill Kevin, I think everything-"

"Aaaagggghhhh!"

"What was that?" Ron demanded.

"It sounded like Jimmie," said Harry.

"You're right, I think it was him," Grace agreed. "I wonder what happened? Maybe we should go look." Everyone had just stood up to find out what was wrong with Jimmie, when he came bursting back into the common room, hands over his face.

"My eyes, my eyes!" he wailed as he fell to his knees outside the door.

"Jimmie! What's wrong?" Shana ran over to him and was trying to find out why he seemed to be in pain.

After a minute or so of silently sobbing to himself, Jimmie had collected himself enough to speak. "I walked into our dorm to see if Kevin and Nicole were done fighting, and to ask them if they were going to come out and talk to us, but everything was either broken or shattered, and I wanted to see if Kevin was still alive, so I started looking for him and I found him on his bed and he and Nicole were... were..."

"Yes? What were they?" Shana prompted.

"They were... were... they were _cuddling_! Oh, the pain! And Kevin was _apologizing_ to her! How could he _do_ that? I think I need to lay down."

"Uh, Jimmie, you are laying down," Grace reminded him, while trying not to giggle.

"Oh, right. Then I'll just stay here for a minute."

Jimmie continued to lay on the floor, while the rest of the group moved back to the couches. They had barely gotten settled when Nicole and Kevin walked out of the dorm room, hand in hand.

"What's wrong with Jimmie?" Kevin asked, pointing to the figure who was still laying on the floor.

There were a few muffled laughs before Grace calmly answered, "We think it's probably something he ate. We figure he'll be fine in a day or so, or when the shock wears off."

Nicole and Kevin were confused about the last statement, especially when the rest of the common room burst into laughter. They shrugged it off, though, figuring it was nothing.

"Well, we're off to the library... to study," Nicole said, adding the last part when she realized that everyone in the room was looking at her with doubtful eyes.

"Umm... yes. We need to study badly... so don't come looking for us or anything. We really don't want to be disturbed," Kevin said, knowing that everyone in the room knew he was lying.

"Right... studying," Star said. "Well remember, just don't get caught. I don't think the librarian really likes people 'studying' in there." She lapsed into a fit of giggles as Nicole and Kevin both turned a nice shade of pink and quickly made their exit.

All of them sat their for a few more seconds, laughing, before Grace got to her feet.

"Know what? I think I should go help them study." Grace said making her way to her dorm. "And I think I have just the study aid." She ran into her dorm and returned a moment later holding a bag.

"Yep, I was right. I have seven invisible water balloons left. I'm pretty sure these will help them greatly."

It took Harry a few moments to put everything together, but when he did, he couldn't help but laugh. He was surprised at how the whole of Orion house was much like Fred and George, unlike at Hogwarts where in Gryffindor house, only Fred and George were like Fred and George. Grace made her way across the room and had just opened the door to leave, when she suddenly stopped and turned around.

"Hey, Star, I think this might be more of a two-person job. Wanna help?" She asked. Star jumped to her feet.

"Yeah, sounds like fun," she said with a mischievous grin on her face.

"Good. I bet they haven't gone far," Grace said, looking out into the hallway. "The library is so far away. I'd put money on them being in one of the classrooms on the way there."

Star nodded and they both left the common room.

"So... let me see if I've got this straight," Ron said, slightly confused with what had just transpired. "Nicole and Kevin are going to, umm... do it, I think is the phrase you use, and Grace and Star are going to find them and throw water balloons at them?" The room once again burst into laughter.

"Yes, you have the water balloon part right, but as for Nicole and Kevin doing it... I highly doubt it." Ryan said. "My guess is that they'll just make out for a while. Nicole is really innocent at heart. And on top of that, Kevin would probably say something to offend her before the first article of clothing was removed."

"What's this about articles of clothing being removed?" asked a slightly shocked Hermione, who had just rejoined the group, a stack of papers in hand.

"Oh, nothing, really," said Ryan. "We were just discussing what we thought Kevin and Nicole might be up to at the moment. They left for the library to 'study' a few minutes ago."

"What's so strange about going to the library to study?" Hermione actually did look confused.

"Hermione, come on, you can't actually be that dense," said Ron. Hermione suddenly understood what their conversation had been about, and the tiniest bit of a blush appeared on her face.

"Oh, well, in that case, I guess I won't be able to give them the study schedules I arranged for them," she said as she started handing the schedules to everyone who was still in the room. When everyone had one, she realized that she still had five in her hand; her own, Nicole's, Kevin's, Grace's, and Star's.

"Where are Grace and Star?" she asked.

"They went to find Nicole and Kevin," Brian answered promptly. "Grace wanted to finish off her supply of invisible water balloons." At this, another wave of laughter was sent throughout the group.

"But that's horribly rude," said Hermione, frowning. She was the only one who hadn't joined in the laughter.

"Oh, come on Hermione, it'll be hilarious," Shana stated. "That'll be the second time Nicole's been hit with them in the past two days. I can't wait to see what consequence befalls poor Grace this time. I thought the closet was kinda boring, myself."

"Closet?"

"Yeah, you heard about the closet," Jimmie said. "Remember? That's why she walked into the meeting late yesterday."

"You mean, she was actually locked in a closet?" said Hermione, sounding scandalized. "I thought that was just an excuse for showing up late."

"You really shouldn't get so worked up over it," Jimmie said. "Stuff like that happens all the time between Grace and Nicole. It's a miracle they've not caused each other serious harm from some of the things they've done to each other."

"I thought they were supposed to be really good friends, though," said Ron.

"Oh, they are, don't get me wrong. I've never seen another pair that are better friends. That's the reason they can do those things to each other without the other coming back and trying to really kill them."

"Oh, I see," said Harry, just as the common room door swung open and a flood of students came in. "Well, looks like classes are over for the day. What do we do now?" he asked.

Hermione started to suggest that they start studying for the next day since they hadn't done anything during their free period, but was cut off by Brian.

"Sorry, Hermione, but there's no time for studying right now." Hermione looked at him as though he had just told her that the moon had exploded. He continued unfazed. "We have to have a house meeting."

"What for?" asked Harry.

"To discuss what we're going to do for the Battle of the Bands contest," he answered. "Everyone agreed that we were going to work harder this year than any other year. To do that, we need to actually get to work on it right away, not just talk about getting to work on it. We can't wait until the last minute this year if we want to have a chance at winning." After Brian's mini-speech to his group of friends, he stood on one of the tables near the couch he had been sitting on and called for the attention of his house mates. He then started in on a longer version of his speech.

After ten minutes of listening to Brian speak, most of the people in the common room began returning to their previous activities.

"What are you all doing? We need to get to work on this right away!"

"Brian, shut up. We do the same thing every year. This year's not going to be any different. We're all too lazy to start on it now," came from someone across the room.

"Fine, then, you can't be in the band," Brian answered.

"Goody for me."

"Is anyone else going to listen to what I have to say?" Brian asked the room.

"No," was the collective response.

Brian looked around at everyone there, and noted that most of them had, indeed, stopped listening and gone back to their own conversations. Defeated, he stepped down off the table and sank back into the couch.

"Well, you tried," Ron said, trying to comfort him.

"All I have to say is this; if we lose this year, it's not my fault," Brian stated.

A few minutes of silence passed, then Brian spoke up again. "I'm going to find Grace and Star, see if they need any help. Anyone want to come along?"

Jimmie, Ryan, and the female twins all agreed at once. Harry and Ron were about to agree as well, but a fierce look from Hermione made them quickly change their minds.

"Are you sure you're not going to come with us?" Brian asked one final time.

"Yeah, we're sure," Harry answered him. "Lots of studying to get done. Wouldn't do to get behind this early in the school year."

"Alright. Suit yourselves." Brian and the others then left the common room. Hermione, Harry, and Ron were alone to talk for the first time that day.

"Were you seriously considering going with them?" Hermione asked her two best friends.

"Of course we were, Hermione!" Ron answered. "It's just a bit of fun."

"Just a bit of fun? What would happen if you were caught? What would Dumbledore think when that was reported to him? How would that make our school look?"

"Hermione! Settle down before you hyperventilate. In case you hadn't noticed, we're still here, we didn't go with them. There's nothing for you to worry about. We're just going to sit here with you for the rest of the night, like good little boys, and study. Happy?"

"Yes, Ron, that does make me happy. Now go get your things for tomorrow. You're taking notes so you'll be prepared to answer any questions the teachers may have for you."

"Yes, mother," Ron sighed as he and Harry went to retrieve their books.

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Kevin Hirn: thanks for the review! i'm glad you like it. you're from chicago? any suggestions for what they should do while they're there? i've only been to chicago like three times, so i don't really know what there is to do there.

watever646: um, thanks, i guess.total

delumacar: thanks for reviewing.

annie: thank you for reviewing. i thought that part was quite amusing, myself.

Spizzy: wow, thanks for the enthusiastic review! it's people like you that actually make me want to write more.

thecrazyone357: thanks a bunch for the comment! the justin part was really random, i agree. clam wrote that while we were in school. she didn't actually write it as part of the story, but i thought it would be funny if it were in there.

unknown123678: holy crap, the best story you've read? you have no idea how happy that made me when i read it. i seriously grinned for 20 minutes. i think my family thought i was going insane. thank you so much :D oh, you joined our message board! but you never came back... you should. we would really appreciate it. that reminds me-

EVERYONE SHOULD JOIN OUR MESSAGE BOARD! it's really random. you can talk about anything there. there are only 11 members there right now, and only about 4 or 5 of them ever say anything, so we really would like some new people, if it's not too much trouble. there's a link to it on our profile. oh, and if you do join, you have to be approved as a member (everyone will be), so don't think something is wrong if you can't log in right away.

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a/n: once again, thanks to everyone who read and reviewed, or just read and enjoyed it. please continue to do so. it really does inspireus to write. have fun over the next couple of holidays, and don't do drugs! bye now!

wonder


	7. Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch

a/n: wow, it's been a year since this story was updated last. you guys seriously have no idea how sorry we are for taking so long with this. it was _never_ meant to be left hanging for so long. things just got kinda weird for a while (especially for me), and we weren't able to write. i can't guarantee that updates will come fast after this point, but i will say that it will never take a year again. we really are sorry for this horrible wait. especially to those readers who have been there from the beginning, if there are any of you left. pesonally, i don't even think the length of this chapter makes up for a year of nothing. like i always say though, this story _will_ be finished. and this is finally proof of that!

also, this chapter (finally) is looaaded with plotty stuff! see if you can pick up on it.

wonder

Hey there all! Yeah a lot has happened over the past year that has made it kinda crazy. The biggest thing was that we graduated. Woot! Go us! But now that I'm seteled into my cozy dorm room at a wonderful university, i have a little more time (and a lot more drive) to write. Well I hope you like the new chapter, since its been a year in the making. Have fun reading!

Clam

p.s. **every review we get for this story WILL be answered**. so please, if you have anything at all to comment on, _do it_! especially if you find a mistake that needs to be fixed. thanks for reading!

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Chapter 7 - Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch

Over the next week, Harry, Ron and Hermione fell into a routine. Once they had gotten used to the new school, it seemed like time just flew by. They progressed nicely in their lessons (thanks to Hermione's rigid study schedule), met and became friends with lots of new people, learned more about life in America, and watched as Kevin and Nicole broke up and got back together three more times. Naturally, in all of this activity, the Battle of the Bands was completely forgotten.

On the first Friday of October, the three Hogwarts students were sitting in the common room, having just returned from their last class of the day. They were talking with Brian, Jimmie, and Star.

"So, do you guys think you'll have a chance to come into Chicago with us this weekend?" Brian asked. "You haven't yet."

"I don't know," Hermione answered. "I know we finally don't have a lot of homework and studying to do this weekend, but it seems like there was some other important thing going on."

"Hmm... I don't know what that would be," Brian said after thinking for a few seconds.

At that moment Kevin walked into the common room carrying a Burger King bag and cup. He walked over to where Ron, Harry, Hermione, Brian, Star, and Jimmie were and sat down with them. He opened the bag, took out his food, and started eating without saying anything to anyone.

After watching him eat half of his sandwich, Harry asked, "Um, where and when did you get that?"

Kevin looked up at Harry and answered him. "I skipped fourth period today and went to Burger King," he said, pointing to the bag "There's one really close to here. The first Friday of every month I skip the last class of the day to get food. It's like my drug."

"What did you get this time?" Jimmie asked.

"A Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch," Kevin answered. "Very delicious."

"I bet," Brian said. He then started humming the 'Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch' song. After a moment Jimmie started singing the words to the song.

Hermione suddenly went rigid.

"I know what we forgot!" she announced.

"What?"

"The battle of the bands contest is on Saturday!"

The effect of these words was instantaneous; Brian and Jimmie stopped exhibiting their musical talents, Kevin choked on a fry, Harry and Ron stared in shock, not believing that Hermione could forget something so important for so long, and Star giggled.

The silence that had befallen the group, save for Star, seemed to drag on forever. Finally, Brian broke it be saying, "Oops, we did it again."

In any other situation that statement would have been hilarious. In this instance, however, no one found it even remotely entertaining. Except for Star, who fell off the couch because she was laughing so hard by that point.

"Who was supposed to be in charge of this thing?" Brian demanded. "And why are you laughing? This isn't funny! Now we only have tonight to come up with something spectacular!"

"Sorry!" Star managed through her now suffocating laughter. "I don't know what's wrong. I'll leave and figure it out." She then stumbled through the door and left just as Grace and Shana were walking in.

"What's her problem?" Shana asked when they reached the group.

"I don't know, but I'm glad she's gone," Brian snapped.

"Ooh, someone's grumpy," Shana said as she sat down.

"Well, you would be, too, if you had forgotten about the Battle of the Bands that's supposed to be happening on Saturday."

"Oh, whoops."

"Yeah, right, whoops. Now, I'm going to ask again; who was supposed to be in charge of this?"

"Well, I think we all assumed you were, since you were the one who was so adamant about not forgetting this year."

Brian stopped his tirade and looked thoughtful for a second. "Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Well, anyway," he started, changing the subject back to the actual battle, "we have to find a song, like, _now_. Any suggestions?"

Everyone was silent.

"How about the sandwich song you were just singing?" Ron suggested after a few minutes, snickering. Hermione glared at him.

"What?" Ron asked.

"That's not funny, Ron. We're supposed to be taking this seriously. That's obviously not something-"

"Actually, I think that's a pretty good idea," Brian said. "And since no one else has any ideas, that's the best we've got." He then stood on one of the tables, much like he had a month ago, and attempted to get everyone's attention.

"Hey, listen up!" When everyone finally realised that he was trying to talk to them, the conversations in the room gradually stopped.

"Thank you for opting to pay attention to me," Brian started, slightly annoyed that it had taken so long. "As most of you have probably forgotten, the Battle of the Bands is tomorrow-"

"What?"

"You're kidding!"

"What do you mean, tomorrow?"

"Well, I obviously mean _tomorrow_. As in Saturday. And if you want to hear the rest of what I have to say, you may want to _shut up_!"

The room suddenly got quite again.

"Thank you, again. Now, we've already got a song picked out, which means we're further ahead at this point than we were last year. Who know the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch song?"

About 15 people raised their hands.

"How many of you know _all_ the words to it?"

Only two people kept their hand up.

"Who has the ability to sing it without making people bleed from the ears?"

Only Jimmy was left with his hand in the air.

"Great, looks like Jimmy will be the lead singer! Now we've got two things taken care of-"

"Wait, what?" asked Jimmy, clearly hoping he had heard wrong.

"You're the lead singer for tomorrow," Brian said. "Do try to keep up from now on."

Jimmy sighed and slumped back into the couch, muttering something that no one quite heard, but most could figure out was not pleasant.

"Now, who here can play an instrument? Holy crap, over half of you? Are you serious?" Brian asked, shocked. "I didn't know you were smart enough... Ok, since we don't need that many people, I'll just randomly pick some of you. Let's go with... Grace, Anna, Delana, Cody, Zack, Karen, Nicole, Chandler, Shana, Anthony, and Nina. Ok, those of you that I just named; come over here. The rest of you can go and make banners and posters and other forms of encouragement."

Brian stepped down from the table and waited for the new band members to arrive in his corner of the room. While he was waiting, he also noticed that some of the people that he did not call the names of were still sitting in that area.

"What are you all still doing here? You're supposed to be helping everyone else with the posters. GO!"

Hermione, Harry, Ron, Ryan, and Kevin all looked slightly offended, but stood to leave anyway.

Brian, changing his mind suddenly, said, "No, wait, you three can stay," and pointed to the Hogwarts students. They looked at each other, confused.

"Why?" Harry asked. "We can't play any instruments."

"Well, you're supposed to be learning about American culture, and whatnot, so I figured this would help. And Hermione's smart, so she could probably learn to play something simple by tomorrow night."

Hermione blushed slightly at the unintended compliment.

"What about Ron and me, though? We can't do that. No offense, Ron," he said, directing the last statement at his best friend. Ron made it apparent with a shake of his head that he didn't mind.

Brian thought to himself for a minute, then said, "You can be back up singers!"

Harry and Ron looked at each other again, doubtful of Brian's choice.

"We don't know the words," Ron said.

"You don't need to," Brian said, dismissing Ron's concern, "you're back up singers. All you have to do is stand behind Jimmy and say 'ooo, ooo, ooo.' It's not that difficult."

"Ok," Ron sighed, still not believing that he and Harry were right for the part.

"Alright, now that you've all finally gotten here," Brian said, turning and addressing the band members, "let's get started. Grace, what can you play?"

"Umm, drums?" she answered.

Brian looked worried at her uncertainly, but moved to the next person.

"Anna, what about you?"

"I can play the recorder."

"Ok, I guess we can work that in somehow. Cody?"

"Flute."

"Zack?"

"Tuba."

"Nicole?"

"Bass guitar."

"Chandler?"

"Keyboard."

"Ok, now we're getting somewhere. Seems like we might actually be able to put something resembling a song together. Anthony?"

"Viola."

Brian stared at him like he had grown another head. "You had to play something stupid, didn't you?"

"What do you mean, 'stupid?' There's nothing wrong with the viola!"

"But it's going to sound stupid with the other instruments. Oh well, we'll worry about it later. Shana."

"Electric guitar."

"Karen?"

"Harmonica."

"Delana?"

"Acoustic guitar."

"Ok, Nina? And if you play some kind of guitar, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Three is enough."

"You don't have to worry, I don't play a guitar of any kind. I play the bass drum."

"Like, in a marching band?"

"Is there something wrong with that?" Nina asked, looking like she would hurt anyone that suggested there was. Brian noticed this and quickly continued.

"Nope, perfectly fine. Did I leave anyone out?"

Hermione raised her hand.

"Oh, right, sorry about that. Um, you can play the triangle."

"The triangle?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, the triangle. It's easy; all you have to do is bang on a triangle-shaped piece of metal with a metal stick."

"Oh, ok."

"Ok, we've got a song, band, instruments, and singers. Now we've just got to figure out how the hell we're going to put all those together to make music."

The first 30 minutes of their session on figuring out how to make music was actually spent arguing about how the music was supposed to be played (tempo, key, etc.). After listening to everyone bicker for so long without making any progress, Hermione finally got annoyed and told Harry and Ron to follow her to the library.

"Why are we going to the library?" Ron demanded on the way there. "How is the library possibly going to help us this time?"

Hermione glared at Ron, upset that he doubted the library's ability to help them. "While I was in there on our first day here I found a book called 100,000 Things You Think You'll Never Need To Know, But Probably Will At Some Point In Your Life, and I could have sworn I saw sheet music for this exact song in there."

"Well, why didn't you go and get it half an hour ago?" Ron asked, his voice raising slightly in anger. "You could have saved us a lot of trouble."

"I just remembered, ok?" Hermione shouted. "Besides-" she started, but stopped abruptly when she lost her balance and fell forward. Harry had moved to help her, but Ron had already caught her and was helping her to stand up straight again.

"Woah, Hermione, are you alright?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I think so," she answered. She closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to clear it.

"What happened?" Harry asked her.

"I don't know, I just got dizzy all of a sudden," she said.

"Do you need to see the nurse?" Ron asked, still sounding worried.

"No, I'm fine." After a few more seconds she opened her eyes again and looked like she was back to normal.

"Thanks, Ron," she said.

Ron, who had been watching her closely to make sure that was really ok, was startled. "Huh?" he said stupidly.

"I said thanks," she repeated. "For helping me, I mean," she added quietly, vaguely gesturing to the way Ron was still holding on to her.

Ron looked down at his own hands and, as if just realising where they were, quickly pulled them back and put them in his pockets. He looked down at the floor as he started turning pink. "Oh, right, it was nothing, not a problem," he rambled.

The three of them stood there for a few seconds longer, Ron and Hermione in an awkward silence, purposely not meeting each other's eyes, and Harry attempting not to laugh. After witnessing that scene, a few things in Harry's head clicked and he realised that something was bound to happen between his two best friends soon, whether they realised it or not.

To break the silence, Ron cleared his throat and said, "So, um, the library..."

"Right, the library," Hermione said, glad to move to safer, more comfortable territory. She then began leading the way down the hall again.

When the trio finally reached the library, Harry and Ron went to find seats while Hermione went to the desk and started talking to the librarian. Harry noticed that it seemed like the two were already acting like old friends. After a few more moments of friendly chatting, Hermione received the book she wanted and sat down with Harry and Ron.

"It's so good to actually be able to have a conversation with the librarian. Madam Pince was nothing like Meredith. She's so much nicer, though maybe a tad bit airheaded."

"Wait, you're on a first name basis with the librarian?" Ron asked in disbelief.

"Of course," Hermione answered, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

Ron decided it was best to just let the matter go and focus on the task at hand.

"Whatever. So, where is this music you saw?"

"Oh, right." Hermione opened the large book to the table of contents and found the section called Music You'll Probably Need to Know For Some Reason. Towards the bottom of the list, indeed, was the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch song. "See, I told you it was in here."

"Well, then, check out the book and let's take it back to the others before they start tearing each other apart."

"Why are you in such a hurry?" Harry asked Ron.

"If you hadn't noticed, nearly everyone else in the school is eating right now. I figured if we get this little mission accomplished, Brian might take it a little bit easier on us and actually let us go to dinner."

Harry thought through this logic for a moment. "Actually, that does make sense," he said. "And you're right, everyone else is eating dinner. Now that you mention it, I'm hungry too. Come on, Hermione, let's go."

"Do you two only ever think of food?" she asked as she stood up and started walking to the check out desk.

"Only when I'm supposed to be eating it, but am being otherwise detained," said Ron.

Hermione checked out the book and soon after they were on their way back to the common room. When they walked in, Brian attacked them.

"Where were you? And why didn't you tell anyone you were leaving? We're in the middle of a crisis here, and you three just up and walk out whenever you feel like it-"

"Brian, shut up!" Ron yelled. Brian was so taken aback at Ron's outburst that he stopped talking and just stared at him.

"Hermione found a solution to your problem," Ron said. He took the book from her and handed it, opened to the right page, to Brian.

Brian looked at it. When he realised what it was, he felt slightly ashamed for yelling at them.

"Oh. Sorry about that, guys. Um, thanks for finding this Hermione."

"Don't worry about it," Hermione said.

Brian took the book back to the rest of the group and shared it with them. In another ten minutes they had figured out how to make copies for everyone and Brian reluctantly let them all leave for dinner.

"But I want you all back here as soon as you get done eating, got it?"

"Yeah, whatever," Grace mumbled.

"I mean it!" Brian said. "You've got an hour to get back up here. If we lose this year, I'm personally holding each and every one of you responsible."

Even though no one seemed to have taken Brian's words seriously, dinner was a bit more stressful that night. All of them seemed to be lost in thought and ate more quietly than normal.

Just before an hour had passed, everyone had made their way back to the common room. By that time, most that had their instruments with them at school had gotten them from their rooms. The rest were trying to make do with whatever they were able to transfigure from random furniture from the room, so they could practice with the others. Hermione was able to create a triangle from a lamp on only her second attempt, and then went around the room helping the others. A few minutes later, everyone had their instruments ready to go. Most of them were less than perfect, but they would do for the next few hours.

"Now, does everyone have a copy of the sheet music?" Brian asked as he stood on his table at the front of the room. Everyone shook their head and Brian continued.

"That's great. Now, when I count to three I want everyone to start playing the piece." The room looked ready, so Brian counted, "One, two, three!"

The next moment there was a horrific noise as everyone in the room began to play at once, all at their own tempo.

"Enough!" Brian yelled, barely able to be heard over the explosion of sound. Everyone stopped quickly except for Grace, who kept on drumming, obviously the reason for half of the noise level. After a few seconds she noticed that the rest of the room had stopped playing, and, slightly embarrassed, also stopped.

"Ok, that didn't go as well as I'd hoped," Brian said. "This time I think it would be better to try it in sections." All agreed, and Brian went to work dividing the room into sections he could manage.

After 45 minutes of practice, all the sections seemed to have the basis of the song down. For once, Brian was feeling slightly more confident that they would actually be able to pull it off.

Harry, who had been watching from the other side of the room, was also feeling better about the whole ordeal. If things went well, Hermione would be happy and not try to blame Harry and Ron for the entire group failing. But if they didn't… well, he just hoped everything went well.

Brian got back on top of his table, then, and addressed the group. "Ok, the first time through I want everyone but the drums to play." With that he flicked his wand, which he was using in place of a baton, and everyone began to play.

It wasn't the best thing Harry had ever heard, but this time he could at least tell what song they were attempting to play. Somewhere around the middle of the song he looked over to where Grace and Nina were sitting. Both of the girls seemed to be following along with the music as the others played, but not doing anything else.

Just then, Ron nudged him in the side. "Hey, do you realize that neither Grace or Nina have played since that first attempt?"

"Yeah, I did notice that. I wonder how good they'll be?"

"I dunno," Ron said. "Hopefully decent, or Brian is probably going to go into a mad rage."

It wasn't long before their question was answered. Right after the song had been played through twice, Brian shouted, "Ok, now let's add the drums!"

Grace looked ecstatic to hear that and jumped onto her drum seat. Brain raised his hands and began to conduct. Just as the band hit their first note, the loud crash of drums and symbols drowned out most everyone else. Most stopped playing and looked at Grace, who was all over her drum set, and obviously didn't have a clue what she was doing.

"Stop. Stop! STOP!" Brian shouted. After his third "stop," Grace looked up and noticed that she was, yet again, the only one still playing.

"Sorry," She muttered in an apologetic tone. "Was I off the beat?"

When everyone realised that she was serious, they all started to laugh, and Brain turned red and stared at her in disbelief.

"Off the beat? You weren't even close to the beat! I though you said you could play the drums?"

"I can play the drums!" She then began to beat on them like she had before. After a few seconds she looked up and said, "See?"

"Ok, that was a bad question," Brian said, smacking his forehead. "Now I'm going to rephrase that and ask, have you ever played the drums before?"

Grace stalled for a moment before admitting hesitantly, "Well, technically, no. But I've always wanted to and I figured they couldn't be that hard to play. And I must say, I really like playing the drums. I think I'm going to keep a set in my room from now on."

"Ok, you know what? Everybody but Grace and Nina leave. Now," Brian ordered. Everyone started clearing out of the area, and Brian walked over to Grace and Nina's section.

"You know, we're never going to get this together in time if you keep calling these breaks all the time," Shana pointed out as she was walking by.

Brian rounded on her. "Well, if you think you can do such a better job at organizing this, then get over here and do it yourself," he snapped.

Shana was gobsmacked by his reaction. Brian never got angry with any single person that fast. Even being around all of the people in the band wouldn't have normally made him react like that. After a few seconds she recovered and frowned at him.

"Bitchy really doesn't suit you, Brian," she said.

One glance at the hurt look on Shana's face and Brian was immediately ashamed of his outburst.

"Oh, Shana, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean that," he said, hanging his head and rubbing his eyes, showing how tired he was. "It's just, we've been working at this for so long now, and we've only got so much time left, and I've had a headache for the last couple of hours... I'm just not in the best of moods right now," he said, looking up at her again.

"Yeah, I understand," Shana said. "Don't worry; I'm not mad at you," she added when Brian still looked upset, and then threw in a hug just to make sure he knew she was serious. She then left to join the rest of the musicians, and Brian got back to work with Grace and Nina, feeling slightly better than before.

"Ok, I need everyone in the band back over here, please!" Brian called across the crowded common room, yet another forty-five minutes later. Less than two minutes after that, everyone was back in their seat and ready to go.

"As you all know, I had Nina help Grace with the drums. It went... better than I expected, but we're still not there yet. I know stopping like that isn't helping the rest of you, but it may be better for the group as a whole. If we all practice a lot tonight, and a lot tomorrow, I think we'll be able to make this work. What do you say?"

"I say, can we practice now instead of listen to you talk?" came from someone in the crowd.

"Oh, right, sure, sorry" Brian said after realising that he had spent more than enough time talking. "Let's go." He then raised his wand and began conducting, keeping them at practice well into the night.

By the next evening, the Orion House band had made great improvement. Their last practice had ended at six-thirty so they could make it to the Dining Hall to get ready for their performance by seven.

When they got into the Dining Hall, they saw that it was already nearly full. They were the last group to arrive, and would be the last group performing.

"Are you guys ready for this?" Brian asked his group.

"We have to be, don't we? Considering we don't have anymore practice time," Delana said.

"Excuse me, everyone, please quiet down!" Miss Spenace announced across the hall. She waited for the room to get quiet, then continued. "Thank you. As you all know, every group that has entered this contest is competing for some kind of prize for their house. Up until know you have not known what the prize will be. And, I'm sorry to say, you won't know until the end of the night. So, up first, we have the band from Cassiopeia. They'll be performing 'The Devil Went Down To Georgia' by the Charlie Daniels Band. Interesting choice, Cassiopeia. Ok, the stage is yours."

Miss Spenace left the stage and the Cassiopeia band began setting up for their song.

Before they even started playing, the audience could tell that it would be an interesting performance. All the bend members had on cowboy hats and boots to complete the "southern" look. They played the entire song quite well, but the best part was, obviously, "Johnny's" fiddle solo. It was done perfectly, and the crowd loved it.

When they were done, they left the stage as everyone clapped and cheered.

"Crap, they sounded really good," Brian complained.

"Well, they probably practiced for at least a couple of weeks," Star said.

Brian turned around to look at her. "Oh, be quiet Star. You're not even in the band, so you don't get to criticize us."

Just then, Miss Spenace announced that the next band performing was from Auriga, and that they would be singing "We Are the Champions" by Queen. Auriga took the stage and began their song.

"Thank god we're not them," Brian commented after just a few seconds of the song. "I would be so embarrassed if I were on that stage right now."

The Auriga band sounded like they had had just about as much practice as Orion. Possibly even less. The first few chords were out of tune, and the lead singer sounded like he had laryngitis. By the middle of the song his voice was completely gone, and the guitar player forgot his part.

"Brian, you really shouldn't be so mean," said Hermione.

"What do you mean I'm being mean? I'm not being mean. Come on, even you have to admit they suck worse than we do."

Hermione watched the band for a little while longer, but couldn't think of anything to say in their defense.

"See, even you admit that they suck worse than us."

"I said no such thing!"

"Yeah, well, you didn't deny it either. That's as good as agreeing," Brian said, grinning at her because he knew it would irritate her.

"Oh, just leave me alone!" Hermione said, obviously flustered, then stomped away from him.

Brian laughed at her as she walked away, then clapped with everyone else when Auriga finally got off the stage.

"Ok, up next we have the band from Indus. They'll be performing "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day. Take it away, Auriga."

The Auriga band was, without a doubt, the most rehearsed. The music was played almost flawlessly. The singer knew all the words and hit every note. It was like they had studied a performance of the band and memorized every move they made. At the end of their song, the audience erupted. It had definitely been the best performance so far.

"Wow," said Harry.

"I know," Ron agreed.

"They were very good. I almost feel sorry for Brian," Hermione said, turning to watch as Brian grumbled to himself and glared at anyone who looked at him.

"Almost?" Harry asked.

"Yes, almost. He was being rude to me earlier, so I don't quite feel sorry for him right now."

"Oh."

And then it was they're turn on stage. The Orion band members filed onto the stage as Miss Spenace introduced them.

"And last, but not least, we have the band from Orion. And it seems that would be quite a large band," Miss Spenace commented as she watched all fifteen of them walk onto the stage.

"Ok, this is the Orion group, and they will be performing," she paused again as she looked down at her list, making sure it was right, "the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch" song from the Burger King commercial. Well, ok, whatever. The stage is all yours, Orion." She then walked away to sit with the other teachers.

Brian stood in front of the stage and waited for everyone to get settled into their positions (which was slightly difficult since there were so many of them), then began directing them. Jimmie took a few steps forward and began to sing.

_When my belly starts a-rumblin'  
And I'm jonesin' for a treat  
I close my eyes for a big surprise  
The Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch_

Jimmie had started out nervous and quieter than normal, but had gained confidence and got louder as he saw that the audience were enjoying themselves and weren't going to throw things at him.

_I love the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch  
The breasts they grow on trees  
And streams of bacon ranch dressing  
Flow right up to your knees_

_There's tumbleweeds of bacon  
And cheddar paves the streets  
Folks don't diss front you 'cause you got the juice  
There's a train of ladies comin' with a nice caboose  
Never get in trouble, never need an excuse  
The Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch_

By the end of the third verse, everyone was feeling pretty good about their show. They were all really getting into the music. Jimmie had started wandering around the stage, singing to the other band members, the guitars were in their own little guitar world, Harry and Ron had come up with a little dance to go with their background singing. Even Hermione had loosened up quite a bit.

_I love the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch  
No one tells you to behave  
Your wildest fantasies come true  
Dallas cheerleaders give you shaves  
Red onions make you laugh instead  
And french fries grow like weeds  
You get to veg all day  
All the lotto tickets pay  
There's a king who wants you to have it your way  
That's the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch_

_Come 'n get it… _

When their song was over, the crowd was split between two different reactions. Half of them were cheering like they had for Indus, but the other half were laughing like they had for Auriga.

"Well, at least it wasn't a complete failure," Brian said to his band. They all agreed with him and moved out of the way as Miss Spenace returned, once again, to the center of the stage.

"Alright, that's everyone. Now, would all of the other bands please join us up here for the judging? Well, actually, I don't think we'll all fit. All of the other bands can stand in front of the stage." She waited until everyone was in the right spot and the room got quiet again. "Ok, now, the judging this year will be done the same as every year; with the Clap-O-Meter 3000." She waved her wand and the Clap-O-Meter 3000 appeared next to her in the middle of the stage. "The way it works is, when I say the name of the band you want to win, you clap and the Clap-O-Meter 3000 will judge how loud you are. The group that gets the loudest applause wins. The first band that performed tonight was Cassiopeia. Who wants Cassiopeia to win?"

Most of the students from Cassiopeia, and a few others, cheered as loud as they could. It registered at a seven out of ten on the Clap-O-Meter.

"Ok, the next group to go was Auriga."

The Auriga students cheered with all their might, but they only received a six.

"After that came Indus."

The Hall suddenly exploded with applause that went on for a good five minutes. They got a nine point five.

"Wow, what a reaction. And, lastly, Orion."

The noise level for Orion wasn't quite as loud as for Indus, but it was enough to earn them an eight.

"And the results of the battle are in: Indus in first, Orion in second, Cassiopeia in third, and Auriga in fourth. All of our bands did a wonderful job tonight, and I think they've all earned another round of applause." Miss Spenace stopped and clapped along with the rest of the students and teachers.

"And, so, the time to hand out the award has finally arrived. I bet you all want to know what it is, don't you?" she asked, teasingly. The crowd cheered and whistled some more.

"Ok, the prize that Indus has won tonight is... use of the Dining Hall for a party for the rest of the night, with no curfew!"

The Indus students were beside themselves. It was even possible that they cheered louder for the prize than for their band.

"I'm sorry to say, everyone else must leave and return to their dorms. It's not fair to Indus if their special treatment is shared with everyone. So, all of you who aren't in Indus, move out!"

As Harry, Ron and Hermione were leaving the Hall with everyone else, someone ran into Harry and knocked him to the floor.

"Watch it, Potter," came a familiar voice.

Harry looked up and saw that it was, sure enough, Malfoy.

"Of course, your highness," Harry said as he stood up. "I see you've got a new group of followers. Why are you all leaving your hard-earned party?"

"Please, as if we don't have something more important to do than stand around with these idiots for hours. Out of our way."

Harry watched Draco and his new friends (the only Indus students leaving the party, he noticed) push their way between himself and Ron, and walk off down and empty hallway.

"Come on, Harry, let's go," Ron said.

Harry turned back to his friends and followed them back to the Orion common room.

"So, what do you guys want to do tonight?" Ron asked Harry and Hermione when they sat down on one of the couches. "Want to play Exploding Snap?" he asked as he pulled a deck of cards out of his pocket.

"Sure," Harry answered.

"Hermione?" Ron prompted.

Hermione looked up at his, as if just coming out of a trance. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I asked if you wanted to play Exploding Snap," Ron repeated.

"Not tonight. I'm actually not feeling well, all of a sudden," she said.

"You're not feeling well? Neither am I," said Grace, who had just walked up to their group. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just a little more tired than normal, and I've got a headache," Hermione answered.

"Me too. Hey, I've got this herbal tea that's supposed to help get rid of headaches. I gave some to Brian earlier, because he said he had one. Must be from all the stress of this battle thing. You wanna try some?"

"Sure, that sounds nice," Hermione said.

"Ok, come with me to the room and you can have some while you get ready for bed."

"Thank you so much, Grace. I'll see you boys in the morning." Hermione stood up and gave each of her best friends a hug, then followed Grace to their room.

After getting herself ready to go to sleep, Hermione took the cup of tea Grace offered her and drank it. Within minutes of finishing it she was feeling much better and drifted, almost instantly, off to sleep.

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a/n: so, there's the long-awaited chapter seven. was it worth it? and yes, we are review whores, so please tell us what you think!


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